COGNITIVE STRATEGIES AND RECALL OF PACE BY LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS

The purpose of this study was to examine whether long-distance runners with high or low performance of recalling running pace differed in th eir use of cognitive strategies in a race. Recalling pace means the ac curacy which runners have to approach their self-set target pace in a race. 60 male competitive runners who participated in a 20-km intercol legiate race were categorized as either runners with high recall of pa ce (accurate) or the runners with low recall of pace (inaccurate) on t he basis of the discrepancy between a self-set target time and actual lime. Analysis showed that the 30 accurate recallers used the attentio n strategies more frequently for recalling running pace, used the stra tegy of following other runners less frequently, and set a more approp riate finish time in accordance with their running ability than the 30 inaccurate recallers. The accurate recallers, who monitored their run ning pace and fatigue by using attention strategies, would reproduce m ore accurate self-set target times in accordance with their running ab ility.