The effects of motivational versus instructional self-talk on improving motor performance

This study examined the effectiveness of different self-talk strategies on increasing performance in different motor tasks. Specifically, four laborat ory experiments were conducted to examine the effect of motivational versus instructional self-talk strategies on four different tasks. Included in th e experiments were a soccer accuracy test, a badminton service test, a sit up test, and a knee extension task on an isokinetic dynamometer. Results of the first two experiments indicated that only the participants of the inst ructional group improved their performance significantly more than the moti vational and control groups. Results of the third experiment indicated no s ignificant differences between the three groups, although all groups showed improvements across trials. Results of the fourth experiment showed a sign ificant improvement for both the motivational and instructional groups comp ared to the control group. It appears that when the task requires fine moto r movements, an instructional self-talk strategy is more effective, whereas when the task requires predominantly strength and endurance, both motivati onal and instructional strategies are effective.