Abstract

Introduction and Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of sport induced emotion type and the role of behavioral brain systems on the level of cognitive effort and motor memory performance.

Method: The participants were 60 female physical education students from Shahid Beheshti University, aged between 18 and 25 years. Based on the Gray–Wilson personality questionnaire, they were categorized into four groups: behavioral inhibition with positive induction, behavioral activation with positive induction, behavioral inhibition with negative induction, and behavioral activation with negative induction. During the pre test phase, participants completed the PANAS questionnaire and performed the Continuous Performance Test and the Chain Color Matching Test. Then, they watched five minute sport emotion induction videos corresponding to their group type and completed the PANAS again. In the post test phase, the same two cognitive tests were re administered.

Results: Results of the mixed ANOVA showed that all groups exhibited improved performance in the post test compared with the pre test (P < 0.05). However, the behavioral activation group with positive emotion induction performed significantly better than the other groups.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that the type of induced emotion plays a crucial role in athletic performance, particularly in motor memory. Accordingly, it is recommended that coaches employ appropriate emotional induction strategies to enhance athletes’ cognitive and psychological readiness during training and competition.