The effect of motivational self-talk on reaction time

It is well documented that self-talk (ST) as a cognitive strategy can enhance motor tasks and sport performance. The first purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of motivational self-talk (MST) on the auditory whole body, simple and choice reaction time (RT). Secondly, we aimed to examine the relationship between participants’ belief in self-talk and performance. Thirty-four female university students (21.94 ± 1.89 years) voluntarily participated in the study. Subjects accomplished three reaction time tasks on two occasions. At the first day whole body, simple and choice reaction times were assessed separately in five trials. In the second session participants engaged in MST before each trial and then filled out the belief in self-talk questionnaire (BSQ). A Paired samples t-test revealed that MST leads to a significant decrease in choice RT (p < 0.01). Although, there were no significant differences between pre-test and post-test of whole body and simple reaction time. Furthermore, bivariate correlation showed no significant correlation between belief in self-talk and performance. The results suggest that using motivational self-talk can help to react remarkably fast in choice reaction time tasks.