Attention distraction and traction by task-irrelevant emotion information in Athletes: Evidence from the Sport Emotional Stroop Task-English

During competition, athletes must suppress task-irrelevant stimuli to effectively attend to performance-related information. Understanding how emotional stimuli capture attention and consume cognitive resources is vital for studying attention regulation in athletes. This study assessed athletes' ability to inhibit emotional distractions using the Sport Emotional Stroop Task in English (SEST-E). Administered to 66 English-speaking athletes, the task revealed significantly longer reaction time for negative valence sports words and shorter reaction time for positive valence words compared to neutral valence words. These results support the valence hypothesis and the negativity bias. Emotional valence distinctly influences attentional processing, with negative stimuli prolonging distraction by task-irrelevant information and positive stimuli facilitating traction to task-relevant information. The latter findings provide evidence for the mood-as-information theory. Incorporating negative valence stimuli into training to improve attention control and emphasizing positive aspects of training and competition are practical applications from the present findings. Overall, the SEST-E appears to be a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners to assess and address emotional influence on athlete performance.