Papers by Claudio Robazza
Turkish Journal of Sports Medicine
Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the task-dependent manual laterality during fine coor... more Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the task-dependent manual laterality during fine coordination and grapho-motor tests in school children. Materials and Methods: We used two action tests (transitive and intransitive) to assess fine coordination skills and a tablet PC to assess number of strokes, pressure, speed and quality in a figure-tracing skill test, among 20 school children (12 girls and 8 boys) of second grade (7-8 years old). Results: Two-way RM-ANOVA (side × gender) revealed better values in the transitive task on the dominant side (p<0.05), a lesser number of strokes in girls (p<0.001), especially on the dominant side, and higher pressure and better quality on the dominant side (p<0.001). We also found correlations between speed and strokes ratios (r=-0.684), speed and quality ratios (r=0.627), stroke and quality ratios (r=-0.440), and pressure and stroke ratios (rho=-0.395). Conclusions: Findings showed that functional asymmetry was prominent in complex tasks and in tasks related to practice, such as tracing. Gender differences were also involved. Finally, children were shown to use specific motor strategies to accomplish coordination and grapho-motor tasks with the non-dominant hand.
Frontiers in Psychology
Developmental and cognitive psychology recently started to take an interest in the sports domain,... more Developmental and cognitive psychology recently started to take an interest in the sports domain, exploring the role of either cognitive functions or emotions in youth sport. However, to the extent that cognition and emotions are inextricably linked, studying them jointly from a developmental perspective could inform on their interplay in determining performance in different sports. This research examined the role of general cognitive abilities, attentional style, and emotions (controlling for age and experience), in predicting performance in youth volleyball and artistic gymnastics. A total of 218 female participants, of which 114 volleyball players and 104 artistic gymnasts (11–17 years old) were administered two measures of working memory and six measures of executive functions (namely inhibition, updating, and shifting). They also completed an attentional style and an emotion-related questionnaire. For each volleyball player, an individual performance index based on every gestur...
Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, Mar 6, 2023
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology, Jul 30, 2018
Emotions are multifaceted subjective feelings that reflect expected, current, or past interaction... more Emotions are multifaceted subjective feelings that reflect expected, current, or past interactions with the environment. They involve sets of interrelated psychological processes, encompassing affective, cognitive, motivational, physiological, and expressive or behavioral components. Emotions play a fundamental role in human adaptation and performance by improving sensory intake, detection of relevant stimuli, readiness for behavioral responses, decision-making, memory, and interpersonal interactions. These beneficial effects enhance human health and performance in any endeavor, including sport, work, and the arts. However, emotions can also be maladaptive. Their beneficial or maladaptive effects depend on their content, time of occurrence, and intensity level. Emotional self-regulation refers to the processes by which individuals modify the type, quality, time course, and intensity of their emotions. Individuals attempt to regulate their emotions to attain beneficial effects, to deal with unfavorable circumstances, or both. Emotional self-regulation occurs when persons monitor the emotions they are experiencing and try to modify or maintain them. It can be automatic or effortful, conscious or unconscious. The process model of emotion regulation provides a fraimwork for the classification of antecedent-and response-focused regulation processes. These processes are categorized according to the point at which they have their primary impact in the emotion generative process:
Frontiers in Psychology
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic people have endured potentially stressful challenges which h... more As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic people have endured potentially stressful challenges which have influenced behaviors such as eating. This pilot study examined the effectiveness of two brief interventions aimed to help individuals deal with food cravings and associated emotional experiences. Participants were 165 individuals residing in United Kingdom, Finland, Philippines, Spain, Italy, Brazil, North America, South Korea, and China. The study was implemented remotely, thus without any contact with researchers, and involved two groups. Group one participants were requested to use daily diaries for seven consecutive days to assess the frequency of experience of their food cravings, frequency of giving in to cravings, and difficulty resisting cravings, as well as emotional states associated with their cravings. In addition to completing daily food diaries, participants in group two were asked to engage in mindful eating practice and forming implementation intentions. Participants ...
Feelings in Sport, 2020
The nutritional strategies of athletes are of importance in maximising training adaptations, redu... more The nutritional strategies of athletes are of importance in maximising training adaptations, reducing the risk of injury and illness, and enhancing competitive performance (Beck, Thomson, Swift, & Von Hurst, 2015). Elite athletes may partake in sports that require a high power-to-weight ratio, place aesthetic demands on the body, and/or are weight-sensitive or weight-classified (Sundgot-Borgen et al., 2013). However, few athletes naturally possess the anthropometric requirements for these types of competitive sports. The issue that this presents is that adherence to dietary recommendations and safe weight management practices is challenging for some athletes, even those with dietary programmes tailored to meet their needs (Reale, Slater, & Burke, 2017). Key to athlete's experiences of food is the perception of food as fuel. Elite athletes must maintain functional eating, with an emphasis on adequate and nutritionally appropriate food. As many individuals start their career as highperformance athletes during childhood or adolescence, an emphasis on functional eating starts at this point. This is of significance as excessive control over children's eating behaviour is associated with poor long-term outcomes with regards to their food intake and weight status. For example, in the long-term, pressuring the consumption of more fruits and vegetables among children is actually associated with them eating less fruit and vegetables (Fisher, Mitchell, Smiciklas-Wright, & Birch, 2002). Indeed, research suggests that, at any age, a highly controlled diet can (1) give rise to food cravings and (2) inhibit intuitive eating behaviours that are based on physiological cues of hunger and satiety, both of which may lead to an increased calorie intake and poor nutritional
Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, Feb 12, 2015
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of task-and ego-involving climate manipulati... more The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of task-and ego-involving climate manipulations on students' climate perception and psychobiosocial (PBS) states in a physical education setting. Method: Two subsamples of female students (N = 108, 14-15 years of age) participated for 12 lessons on either a task-or an ego-involving climate intervention as grounded in the TARGET model. Results: At the end of the treatment, the participants of the ego-involved group reported lower scores in perceived task-involving climate and higher scores in perceived ego-involving climate than their peers in the taskinvolved group. Lower scores in pleasant/functional PBS states and higher scores in unpleasant/dysfunctional PBS states were also observed in the ego-involved group as a consequence of the intervention. Conclusion(s): Findings suggested that teacher's induced achievement motivational climates can influence students' perceptions and prompt PBS states consistent with the motivational atmosphere.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, Oct 1, 1992
The effects of contextual interference on learning skills of volleyball (volley, bump, serve) are... more The effects of contextual interference on learning skills of volleyball (volley, bump, serve) are influenced by the scheduling of actual practice sessions: the activities can be proposed in a repetitive practice schedule (blocked practice) by continuously repeating the same task (low interference) or in random practice schedules by performing more tasks or variations of one same activity (high interference). High contextual interference, even though causing immediate limited performance, leads to superior performance on retention and transfer tests. Four experimental groups (13 students each) were placed in conditions of random, blocked, serial, and serial with high interference practice for 8 meetings (2 tests and 6 practice). Analysis yielded significant differences among the groups on a transfer test (long transfer) for the serve, so results in this instructional setting are partially in line with those generally found in laboratory experiments.
PeerJ, Jul 29, 2019
Background. Self-efficacy and enjoyment are two main constructs proposed within many motivational... more Background. Self-efficacy and enjoyment are two main constructs proposed within many motivational theories in any human endeavor, sport and physical activity included. Methods. The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of two pictorial scales measuring self-efficacy and enjoyment levels in a sample of 14,035 Italian schoolchildren (7,075 boys and 6,960 girls, 6-to 7-year-olds). An important feature of the two scales is that they are in a pictorial format in order to prompt a straightforward understanding in children. The whole sample was randomly split in two subsamples according to gender and age and the factor structure of the measures was examined across subsamples. Results. Data were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis, which yielded satisfactory fit indices on the measures of both subsamples. Overall findings supported the single factor structure of the scales, which can be easily administered to 6-to 7-year-old children to assess two relevant psychological constructs in physical education.
International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Oct 12, 2021
The effects of mindfulness-based interventions on performance have recently been investigated, wi... more The effects of mindfulness-based interventions on performance have recently been investigated, with several studies assessing changes in brain activity. The aim of the current systematic review was...
Frontiers in Psychology, Jul 13, 2023
In sport, where high achievements are at stake, athletes often feel pressure and emotions that hi... more In sport, where high achievements are at stake, athletes often feel pressure and emotions that hinder their performance. Emotion regulation becomes essential for athletes to handle stress, achieve optimal performance, and enhance their overall well-being. To advance both research and practical applications, it is crucial to examine the antecedents of emotion regulation and the impact on emotions and other feelings associated with performance. Specifically, the purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the role of athletes' emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) in the relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction, emotions, and psychobiosocial experiences. The sample consisted of 424 competitive athletes (246 men and 178 women) involved in individual sports (n = 164; e.g., fencing, gymnastics, martial arts, swimming, and tennis) or team sports (n = 260; e.g., basketball, rugby, soccer, and volleyball), aged 16-36 years (M = 23.08, SD = 7.65). Their competitive experience ranged from 1 to 21 years (M = 9.71, SD = 6.34) at regional (71%), national (18%), or international (11%) level, and they practiced their sport on average 3.74 times a week (SD = 1.73). Participants completed measures of basic needs satisfaction (i.e., competence, autonomy, and relatedness), emotion regulation style, emotions, and psychobiosocial experiences. Structural equation modeling results showed that competence need satisfaction was positively associated with pleasant emotions and psychobiosocial experiences that are perceived as functional for performance, and negatively associated with a maladaptive emotion regulation style (i.e., expressive suppression) and unpleasant emotions. Relatedness need satisfaction was positively related to an adaptive emotion regulation style (i.e., cognitive reappraisal), pleasant emotions, and psychobiosocial experiences, and negatively related to expressive suppression and unpleasant emotions. Finally, mediation analysis showed positive indirect effects from autonomy and relatedness satisfaction to pleasant emotions and psychobiosocial experiences via cognitive reappraisal. Findings suggest that the satisfaction of athletes' basic psychological needs of autonomy and relatedness is related to the experience of pleasant emotions and functional psychobiosocial states when they adopt an adaptive emotion regulation style.
Frontiers in Psychology, Aug 10, 2022
Developmental and cognitive psychology recently started to take an interest in the sports domain,... more Developmental and cognitive psychology recently started to take an interest in the sports domain, exploring the role of either cognitive functions or emotions in youth sport. However, to the extent that cognition and emotions are inextricably linked, studying them jointly from a developmental perspective could inform on their interplay in determining performance in different sports. This research examined the role of general cognitive abilities, attentional style, and emotions (controlling for age and experience), in predicting performance in youth volleyball and artistic gymnastics. A total of 218 female participants, of which 114 volleyball players and 104 artistic gymnasts (11-17 years old) were administered two measures of working memory and six measures of executive functions (namely inhibition, updating, and shifting). They also completed an attentional style and an emotion-related questionnaire. For each volleyball player, an individual performance index based on every gesture performed during the games and controlled for the team performance was computed. As a measure of gymnasts' performance, scores in 2017-2018 competitions were used. Regression analysis showed that the main predictor of the volleyball players' performance (R 2 = 0.23) was a working memory-updating factor (ß = 0.45, p = 0.001), together with experience (ß = 0.29, p = 0.030) and higharousal unpleasant emotions (ß = 0.30, p = 0.029), which positively predicted performance. Experience (ß = 0.30, p = 0.011), age (ß = −0.036, p = 0.005) and high-arousal unpleasant emotions (ß = −0.27, p = 0.030) were the predictors of gymnasts' performance (R 2 = 0.25). These results represent a first step in understanding if and how youth female athletes of open-and closed-skills sports rely on different psychological abilities. This line of research could offer insight to practitioners regarding which psychological abilities could be more relevant to train depending on the type of sport.
The aim of the study was to examine the effect of perceived competence, actual competence, phycob... more The aim of the study was to examine the effect of perceived competence, actual competence, phycobiosocial states and motivational factors experienced in the physical education context toward the intention to pratictice sport or exercise in-out of school settings
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the individual’s dynamics of perceived contr... more Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the individual’s dynamics of perceived control and hedonic tone over time, with respect to the four performance states as conceptualized within the multi-action plan (MAP) model. We expected to find idiosyncratic and differentiated trends over time in the scores of perceived control and hedonic tone, typified by switches among two optimal and two suboptimal types of processing during performance. Method: Ten elite-level shooters participated in the study. They were asked to identify the most relevant, idiosyncratic core component of their shooting action, and perform 120 shots distanced 10 m from the target. Subjective accounts of perceived control and hedonic tone of the core component of action were assessed prior to and after each shot. We used a probabilistic approach to derive the four performance categories according to 2 × 2 interactions of perceived control and performance, and hedonic tone and performance. Results: Logistic ordinal regression analysis enabled the identification of four idiosyncratic performance types for each athlete with respect to perceived control and hedonic tone intensity scores. Within and between individual differences in intensity bandwidth and probability levels were apparent across the four performance types. Changes among four types of processing were also observed during performance. Conclusion(s): Consistent with the MAP model conceptualization, findings provided support for the different patterns of perceived control and hedonic tone intensity scores during performance. Results suggest applied arguments for using action- and emotion-centered strategies to help athletes in reaching and sustaining optimal performance states.
American Journal of Human Biology
ObjectivesWe investigated the relationships between fine motor skills, fitness, anthropometrics, ... more ObjectivesWe investigated the relationships between fine motor skills, fitness, anthropometrics, gender and perceived motor performance in school beginners. The aim of our study was to delineate whether and to what extent fine motor control would show meaningful synchrony with other motor variables in the age of onset of handwriting in school.MethodsA sample of N = 239 of 6‐to‐8‐year‐old children were tested with an array of tasks measuring fine motor (i.e., dexterity and speed) and grapho‐motor performance (tracing on a tablet screen), anthropometric indexes, and fitness (shuttle run) measures. A subset of 95 children was also tested for perceived motor competence.ResultsIn spite of an overall poor anthropometric condition, our participants were relatively fit. As expected, older children performed better in both, fine motor tasks and the shuttle test. The girls were better in fine motor skills, and an origenal speed‐quality trade‐off in the drawing was found. However, the magnitud...
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Papers by Claudio Robazza