Abstract
In sports, psychological momentum (PM) develops when athletes perceive they are moving toward or away from a
desired outcome, such as the victory (Den Hartigh, Gernigon, Van Yperen, Marin & Van Geert, 2014). According to
recent research, this perception elicits positive and negative changes in athletes’ psychological states (e.g.,
confidence, optimism), as well as their momentary abilities (e.g., Den Hartigh et al., 2014; Den Hartigh, Van Geert,
Van Yperen, Cox, & Gernigon, 2016; IsoAhola & Dotson, 2014, 2016). Interestingly, abilities are a key ingredient of
the concept of affordances, which are the action possibilities for organisms in their environment (Gibson, 1979). In
this experimental study, we aimed to provide a first test of a possible link between PM and affordances. We
examined whether athletes’ judgments of affordances vary with PM. We designed a golf course on which
participants, after a training, were asked to place the ball at their maximum “puttable” distance from the hole. Next,
participants played a golf putting match against an opponent, in which the first to take a lead of 5 points would win
the match. They wore visual occlusion goggles to prevent them from seeing the actual result, and we manipulated
the scoring pattern to induce positive (from -4 to +4 points) or negative PM (from +4 to -4 points). We then asked the
participants again to indicate their maximum puttable distance from the hole. Results provided first evidence for a
PM-affordances link: Relative to the baseline distance (100%), the judgment of the puttable distance corresponded
to 113% during positive PM (95% CI = 97% to 130%) and to 83% (95% CI = 69% to 95%) during negative PM.
Together, these results suggest that athletes’ affordances change when they experience positive or negative PM.
This sheds a new light on the dynamics of perception-action processes and PM in sports.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Event | International Conference on Perception and Action - UMCG, Groningen, Netherlands Duration: 3-Jul-2019 → 6-Jul-2019 https://www.icpa2019.com |
Conference
Conference | International Conference on Perception and Action |
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Abbreviated title | ICPA |
Country/Territory | Netherlands |
City | Groningen |
Period | 03/07/2019 → 06/07/2019 |
Internet address |