Open AccessCommunication
Psychological Pressure Distorts High Jumpers’ Perception of the Height of the Bar
by
Yoshifumi Tanaka 1,*, Joyo Sasaki 2, Kenta Karakida 3,4, Kana Goto 5, Yufu M. Tanaka 6 and Takayuki Murayama 7
1
Department of Health and Sports Sciences, Mukogawa Women’s University, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 6638558, Japan
2
Department of Sports Research, Japan Institute of Sports Sciences, 3-15-1 Nishigaoka, Kita-ku, Tokyo 1150056, Japan
3
Graduate School of Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, 1-1 Asashirodai, Kumatori-cho, Sennan-gun, Osaka 5900496, Japan
4
Gender Equality Promotion, Mukogawa Women’s University, 6-46 Ikebiraki-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 6638558, Japan
5
Junior College Division, Mukogawa Women’s University, 6-46 Ikebirakicho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 6638558, Japan
6
Faculty of Business Administration, Kindai University, 3-4-1 Kowakae, Higashi-Osaka, Osaka 5778502, Japan
7
Section of Sport and Health Science, Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 9201192, Japan
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4563
Abstract
The effects of psychological pressure on perceiving the height of a jump bar just before starting a high jump run was investigated. University students (
n = 14) training for a high jump event performed 15 trials (3 practice, 6 high-pressure, and 6
[...] Read more.
The effects of psychological pressure on perceiving the height of a jump bar just before starting a high jump run was investigated. University students (
n = 14) training for a high jump event performed 15 trials (3 practice, 6 high-pressure, and 6 low-pressure) in counterbalanced order in their daily practice environment. The height of the bar was judged as significantly higher on high-pressure trials compared to low-pressure trials (
p = 0.030). A regression analysis indicated that participants who reported increased subjective perceived pressure tended to judge the bar to be higher (
r = 0.468,
p = 0.091). There was no significant difference between high-pressure and low-pressure trials for the performance index, defined as the success rate (
p = 0.209). This study provides the first evidence that environmental perceptions prior to executing a motor task under pressure may make performance of the task appear to be more difficult.
Full article