The effects of self-talk in a golf putting task under the conditions of ego depletion

Abstract

The effects of ego depletion have shown negative consequences on various sport tasks. Recently, self-talk emerged as a successful method to counteract ego depletion in a cognitive task (Gregersen et al., 2017). Thus, the current study aimed at extending this line of research and examined the effects of a self-talk intervention on a golf putting task in a state of ego depletion. Sample consisted of 61 undergraduate students (Mage = 18.59, SD = 1.04). The mixed between-within design with repeated measures experiment was conducted in a single session with four phases. Upon completion of the baseline measurement, participants were randomly assigned into control and experimental groups. Subsequently, both groups went through a training phase, during which the participants of the experimental group received a self-talk training intervention. The ego depletion manipulation took place prior to the final measurement, where participants performed a golf putting task with a weakened self-control strength. The two-way ANOVA analysis revealed a marginal time by group interaction effect, F(1, 39) = 3.89, p = .056. Furthermore, pairwise comparisons revealed that experimental group participants significantly increased their golf putting performance (p < .001), whereas the performance for the control group remained stable (p = .37). The results of the study suggest that self-talk can be a viable method to facilitate sport performance in a state of ego depletion.