When do chronic differences in self-regulation count? Regulatory focus effects in easy and difficult soccer tasks.
Level 2 - randomized trial
Design analogy: randomized/factorial behavioral experiment evaluating performance under varying task difficulties and instruction framing.
PubMed 23535979 · doi:10.1123/jsep.35.2.216
What was done
An experiment evaluated soccer task performance as a function of athletes' chronic regulatory focus (promotion versus prevention orientation), instructional focus framing (promotion-framed versus prevention-framed goals), and task difficulty (easy versus difficult tasks).
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical data, sample sizes, effect sizes, or test statistics. It reports directionally that task difficulty moderated the effect of regulatory fit: matching instructions to the sportsperson's chronic regulatory focus improved performance in the easy task rather than the difficult task.
Why it matters
These findings suggest that tailoring coaching instructions to an athlete's self-regulatory disposition may enhance performance during easy tasks, but this benefit does not appear to generalize to difficult tasks.
Limits
The abstract omits critical details, including sample size, participant characteristics (such as skill level, age, and sex), specific task parameters, and all quantitative metrics (effect sizes, confidence intervals, and p-values). Testing was experimental and may not reflect high-stakes match conditions.
Cited by
- supports Matching a person's regulatory orientation (promotion vs. prevention) to task demands enhances performance, a phenomenon known as regulatory fit.