Can Talking to Myself Help Me Win? The Impact of Two Dimensions of Self-Talk on Video Game Performance.

Abstract

While self-talk has been shown to improve sports performance, no research has examined its impact on sports-related video game performance. In study 1, 24 undergraduate students were recruited to select a game for use in our second study. Study 2 recruited 34 undergraduate students to test the feasibility of the main study. Study 3 recruited 81 undergraduate students (72% females) to investigate the impact of two dimensions of self-talk – valence (positive/negative) and function (motivational/instructional) on video game performance. In study 3, a 3 (positive/negative/control) x 2 (motivational/instructional) mixed factorial ANOVA indicated that these self-talk dimensions did not impact video game performance.