Negative Psychological Momentum Research Articles

Can barely winning lead to losing? Gender and past performance

We use high-volume data from professional tennis to estimate the causal effect of past on current performance for women and men. To identify this effect, we exploit double faults as exogenous shocks to past performance. We estimate that men do not react to near setbacks in the past. In contrast, women perform considerably worse after near setbacks. Heterogeneity analysis reveals different effects depending on experience, ability, and the intermediate score. Our results are robust to a number of sensitivity checks. A potential explanation for our findings are gender differences in negative psychological momentum.

Elimination Tournament Design under Psychological Momentum

In multi-round elimination tournaments, players experience We re-consider the design of elimination tournament plan, by taking into account of various types of psychological momentum. The results show that if there is negative psychological momentum, either persistent or not, a double-elimination tournament elicits a higher total effort than a single-elimination tournament if and only if the negative psychological shocks from a player's failures in preceding rounds do not affect this player's mental status significantly in the following rounds. Similarly, if positive momentum is non-persistent, a double-elimination tournament elicits a higher total effort if and only if psychological shocks are not significant. However, if positive psychological momentum is persistent, then a double-elimination tournament always dominates a single-elimination tournament.

How do supporters perceive positive and negative psychological momentum changes during a simulated cycling competition?

ObjectiveThe present study examined changes in sport supporters' psychological momentum (PM) during a simulated cycling competition through the lens of the dynamical systems approach. DesignParticipants were asked to support one of two competing cyclists involved in a race that was displayed on a screen in a lecture hall. MethodThe race scenario was manipulated so that the image of the supported cyclist underwent either positive or negative momentum. At regular intervals, participants indicated their PM perceptions during the race. ResultsPM perceptions rapidly changed at the onset of both the positive and negative momentum sequences and then remained stable, reflecting negative hysteresis. Supporters tended to anticipate the future performance of a given athlete on the basis of their current performance. Moreover, this anticipatory tendency was stronger during the positive momentum sequence than during the negative momentum sequence. ConclusionThese results provide initial insights into how PM perceptions of sport supporters change during a competition.

Differential reactions of virtual actors and observers to the triggering and interruption of psychological momentum

The present study compared virtual actors’ and observers’ perceptions of positive and negative psychological momentum (PM) and their responses to sudden interruptions of momentum. Participants with experience playing competitive table tennis imagined that they were playing a table tennis game (virtual actors), whereas participants who lacked experience playing competitive table tennis imagined that they were observing a table tennis game (observers). While viewing an audiovisual simulation of a table tennis match, participants were exposed to either an ascending (i.e., positive momentum) or descending (i.e., negative momentum) scoring sequence that was either suddenly interrupted or not interrupted at all. Participants’ PM perceptions were measured at the conclusion of the simulation. Results indicated that observers’ PM perceptions were lower than were virtual actors’ following the negative momentum sequence. More generally, interrupting positive momentum lowered PM perceptions, whereas interrupting negative momentum increased PM perceptions. Implications for the study of PM in sport are discussed.

Psychological Momentum within Competitive Soccer: Players' Perspectives

The purpose of this investigation was to identify and examine perceptions of psychological momentum from the perspective of competing players in a team sport to provide applied implications for athletes, coaches, and sport psychology practitioners. Participants were five university soccer players who had played in the National British University Sports Association competition during the previous season. Data were collected via three phases of formal interviews, which were supplemented by a comprehensive member check (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Furthermore, transcribed interviews were subjected to an inductive content analysis. Participants described a range of psychological momentum triggers and outcomes based on their experiences of positive and negative psychological momentum. Moreover, participants described strategies used to develop and maintain positive psychological momentum and strategies to overcome negative psychological momentum. Findings are discussed in relation to applied implications for athletes, coaches, and sport psychology consultants operating in team sport settings.

Efficacy, affect, and teams: Is momentum a misnomer?

The purpose of the present study was to test the predictions of the multidimensional model of momentum (Taylor & Demick, 1994) regarding the elusive psychological momentum‐performance relationship. Team‐efficacy and affect were examined as mediators of perceived psychological momentum. Teams were assigned to either a repeated success or repeated failure condition in which success or failure was manipulated by having participants compete against a comparison score to either constantly win the competition or constantly lose the competition. Each team performed three, 30‐ball, competitive volleyball trials. Task specific team‐efficacy, affect, and perceived psychological momentum were assessed prior to each trial and responded to success and failure as expected by the model. The results demonstrated the initiation of the momentum chain but indicated that performance did not significantly increase in response to continued success. Further, experiencing negative psychological momentum led to an increase in performance in a manner similar to the construct of negative facilitation (Cornelius, Silva, Conroy, & Peterson, 1997).

The Projected Performance Model: Relating Cognitive and Performance Antecedents of Psychological Momentum

Psychological momentum has been an elusive phenomenon in sport psychology research. The present study utilized a two-round free-throw shooting contest between pairs of participants to examine factors which influenced participants' perceptions of momentum and subsequent changes in performance. Factors hypothesized to contribute to perceptions of momentum were divided into three categories of Personal Variables, Situational Variables, and Self-ratings of Performance. Perceptions of momentum could be significantly predicted by both Situational Variables and Self-ratings of Performance. Changes in performance, however, were only significantly predicted by Situational Variables. These findings support the notion that attributions of positive and negative psychological momentum function simply as a labeling process in the evaluation of performance, with little or no effect on subsequent performance. Based on these findings and other research on psychological momentum, a theoretical model (Projected Performance Model) is proposed to conceptualize more clearly fluctuations in performance and their relationship to the construct of psychological momentum.

Psychological Momentum and Skill Performance: A Laboratory Study

This study used a laboratory setting and a novel motor skill to investigate psychological momentum and its relationship to performance. Subjects were paired» placed in competition in a novel motor task, and given false feedback concerning the outcome of games. Positive or negative momentum conditions were imposed by manipulating their experiences of victory or defeat as the match progressed. The actual performance and error scores for each subject were recorded after each game. The results indicated that subjects in positive conditions felt they had a high frequency of positive psychological momentum and that subjects in negative conditions felt they had a high frequency of negative psychological momentum. However» comparing mean performance and error scores of subjects in the two momentum conditions over the entire contest; comparing them in the last two games of a set, winners versus losers; and examining the predictive power of set outcome on performance and error scores in the next two games of the following set failed to demonstrate a significant performance effect.