The Effects of Avoiding Instructions Under Pressure: An Examination of the Volleyball Serving Task

Wegner predicts that under pressure self-avoiding instructions not to perform in a certain manner will break down precisely where it is least desired that is the hypothesis of the present study. Specifically, the aim was to test the hypothesis that when instructed not to serve into a certain zone, ironic error would be more prevalent under pressure. Our sample comprised 43 female participants between the age of 13 and 16 (Mage = 14.51, SD = 1.35) who were active volleyball players (Mtraining years = 5.40, SD = 2.38). We measured the participants’ psychophysiological indications of anxiety via the heart rate, heart rate variability as well as the self-reported Mental Readiness Form-3. To measure performance, we counted the number of target and non-target serving zones under different anxiety conditions. Participants scored +5 points for serving into the target zone, scored -5 points for serving to the out or hitting the net and 1 point for serving into the court except the target zone. A 2 (anxiety) × 3 (serving zone) fully repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant anxiety x serving zone interaction F (2, 84) = 36.52, p < .001. When instructed not to serve in a certain zone, players’ overall performance did not change across anxiety conditions t (42) = .68, p =.50. Results did not provide support for the Wegner’s theory as expected, but instead revealed evidence for the Woodman et al.’s (2015) differentiation of ironic performance error. The results demonstrate that the theory of ironic processes may account for practical instruction-based solution for reducing the susceptibility to ironic errors in the serving type of task in volleyball.

Effortful Emotion Regulation as a Unique Form of Cybernetic Control

Emotion regulation is important for psychological well-being, yet we know relatively little about why, when, and how hard people try to regulate emotions. This article seeks to address these motivational issues by considering effortful emotion regulation as a unique form of cybernetic control. In any domain of self-regulation, emotions serve as indices of progress in regulation and inform the expected value of regulation. In emotion regulation, however, emotions also serve as the very target of regulation. This interdependence gives rise to ironic processes that may render people less likely to exert effort in emotion regulation, precisely when they need it most. The proposed analysis complements and extends existing theories of emotion regulation, sheds new light on available findings, carries implications for psychopathology and well-being, and points to new hypotheses that could lead to theoretical and applied advances in the field.

Thought Suppression

The idea that suppressing an unwanted thought results in an ironic increase in its frequency is accepted as psychological fact. Wegner’s ironic processes model has been applied to understanding the development and persistence of mood, anxiety, and other difficulties. However, results are highly inconsistent and heavily influenced by experimental artifact. There are a substantial number of methodological considerations and issues that may underlie the inconsistent findings in the literature. These include the internal and external validity of the paradigms used to study thought suppression, conceptual issues such as what constitutes a thought, and consideration of participants’ history with and motivation to suppress the target thought. Paradigms that study the products of failed suppression, such as facilitated recall and attentional deployment to thought relevant stimuli may have greater validity. It is argued that a shift from conceptualizing the persistence of unwanted thoughts as products of failed suppression and instead as internal threat stimuli may have merit.

An Examination of Ironic Effects in Air-Pistol Shooting under Pressure

This study aimed to test the incidence of ironic performance errors in elite air-pistol shooters. Previous research has revealed that, when shooters are anxious, avoidant instructions can cause ironic performance breakdown, especially in the unintended direction. Fifty-seven experienced air-pistol shooters were given specific instructions not to shoot to a certain part of a target, under low- and high-anxiety conditions, respectively. Results demonstrated that, when instructed not to shoot in a specific direction, anxious shooters did so a significant number of times. Interestingly, there was no difference in non-target non-ironic error, which provides specific support for Wegner’s theory of ironic processes of mental control in air-pistol shooting. Consequently, these findings illustrated that the combination of increased anxiety with avoidant instructions could lead to such unintended performance errors, called ironic error. Thus, understanding the mechanism of the anxiety-performance relationship may be a useful theoretical framework which could provide practical, instruction-based interventions to reduce susceptibility to ironic errors under pressure.

Counter-Intentional Errors of Basketball Free Throw Shooting Under Elevated Pressure: An Educational Approach of Task Instruction

The aim of this experimental study was to test Wegner&rsquo;s (1994) theory of ironic processes in a basketball free throw task under pressure. More specifically, Wegner (1994) predicts that when instructed not to perform in a certain manner performers&rsquo; performance will break down where it is least desired way which is the main hypothesis of the current study. More specifically, it was hypothesized that when basketball players were instructed &ldquo;not to throw the ball&rsquo;&rsquo; into the certain zone on the backboard would decrease their performance in ironic fashion especially under manipulated high-anxiety condition. The sample of the present study comprised 37 male (Mage=22.30,&nbsp;SD=2.89) experienced university basketball players. Participants&rsquo; anxiety was measured using MRF-3 (Krane, 1994). In a basketball free-throw task; the numbers of targets, non-target non-ironic balls and ironic error balls were counted and overall performance was also calculated in order to measure participants&rsquo; performance. Based on the scoring system, participants gained +5 points for throwing into the target, scored -5 points making an ironic error and 0 points for throwing the ball to anywhere (except the target and non-target ironic error zone) on the backboard. Results revealed that when instructed not to throw in a certain zone, performers&rsquo; overall performance changed in ironic fashion across anxiety conditions. Findings&nbsp;suggest that understanding the mechanism of ironic processes of mental control theory may be a useful theoretical framework for examining the relationship between anxiety and performance in sport, physical education and motor control studies.

Ironic or Overcompensation Effects of Motor Behaviour: An Examination of a Tennis Serving Task Under Pressure

With specific regard to the hypothesized effects of anxiety on performance in motor behaviour, the rival predictions emanating from the Wegner’s “ironic processes theory” and the “implicit overcompensation hypothesis” are largely indiscriminate. Specifically, Wegner’s theory predicts that self-instructions not to perform in a certain manner would lead to the very behaviour the individual seeks to avoid under pressure. On the other hand, the implicit overcompensation hypothesis predicts that avoidant instructions would produce the opposite outcome to that intended by the performer under pressure. The present novel study directly compared these predictions using a tennis serving task under manipulated instructions. The sample comprised 32 (20 men, 12 women; Mage = 20.81, SD = 2.20) experienced tennis players who performed a tennis serving task. Participants’ levels of cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence were measured by using Mental Readiness Form-3. A 2 (anxiety: low, high) × 3 (serving zone: target zone, non-target ironic error zone, non-target non-ironic error zone) repeated measures of ANOVA revealed a significant anxiety × serving zone interaction F(2, 62) = 32.27, p < 0.001 which provides specific support for the Wegner’s ironic processes of mental control theory rather than implicit overcompensation hypothesis. More specifically, Bonferroni-corrected follow-up paired samples t-tests revealed that when instructed not to serve in a specific direction, anxious performers did so a significantly greater number of times (t31 = −5.15, p < 0.001). The present research demonstrates that ironic performance errors are a meaningful and robust potential concern for performers who are required to perform under pressure.

Ironic and Reinvestment Effects in Baseball Pitching: How Information About an Opponent Can Influence Performance Under Pressure

Are pressure-induced performance errors in experts associated with novice-like skill execution (as predicted by reinvestment/conscious processing theories) or expert execution toward a result that the performer typically intends to avoid (as predicted by ironic processes theory)? The present study directly compared these predictions using a baseball pitching task with two groups of experienced pitchers. One group was shown only their target, while the other group was shown the target and an ironic (avoid) zone. Both groups demonstrated significantly fewer target hits under pressure. For the target-only group, this was accompanied by significant changes in expertise-related kinematic variables. In the ironic group, the number of pitches thrown in the ironic zone was significantly higher under pressure, and there were no significant changes in kinematics. These results suggest that information about an opponent can influence the mechanisms underlying pressure-induced performance errors.

Don’t Miss, Don’t Miss, D’oh! Performance When Anxious Suffers Specifically Where Least Desired

We present two novel tests of Wegner’s (1994) theory of ironic processes of mental control using a hockey penalty-shooting task (Study 1) and a dart throwing task (Study 2). In Study 1 we aimed to address a significant limitation of ironic effects research in a performance setting by differentiating nonironic performance error from specifically ironic performance error. When instructed not to miss in a specific direction, anxious performers did so a significantly greater number of times; importantly, there was no difference in nonironic error, which provides the first specific support for Wegner’s theory in a performance setting. In Study 2, we present the first examination of the precision of ironic errors. When anxious, participants performed not only more ironically but also performed more precisely in the to-be-avoided zone than when they were not anxious. We discuss the results in the context of the importance of specific instructions in coaching environments.