Mind over Body: Investigating Cognitive Control of Cycling Performance with Dual-Task Interference

The use of inner speech is expected to play an important role when motivating oneself to complete difficult or exhausting tasks by inhibiting the tempting alternative of quitting. This experiment by Johanne Sofie Krog Nedergaard sheds light on the role of inner speech during high intensity cycling.

The use of self-talk during strenuous exercise

Most of us are prone to use our inner voice to self-motivate during difficult or exhausting tasks when the easier choice is to give up and do something else. This is especially relevant for endurance performance, such as long-distance running, cycling, or swimming, where the athlete must perform an exhausting task for an extensive amount of time.

Johanne investigated the role of self-talk, or inner speech, during endurance performance, with the aim of exploring the role of self-motivating inner speech during high intensity exercise.

About the experimental procedure

51 participants were recruited for an experiment at COBE Lab. Participants filled the Automatic self-talk Questionnaire for Sports (ASTQS), used to measure quantity and quality of self-talk. Thereafter, participants completed 24 1-minute trials (12 resting and 12 cycling, interleaved) on an exercise bike while wearing a Charge 2 Fitbit, which measure heart rate. During each trial, the participant would either

a) Remember a sequence of letters and numbers (verbal interference)

b) Remember the location of letters and numbers (non-verbal interference)

c) Receive no task (control group)

It was expected that the verbal interference task would prevent the use of self-talk, thus lowering distance cycled during the 1-minute intervals, as compared to the non-verbal interference task and the control group.

Was there any difference in performance based on conditions?

Yes and no. As expected, performance in the verbal interference condition was significantly lower than in the control group (p < .001, d = 0.29). However, there was no significant difference between performance in the verbal and non-verbal condition (p = .10, d = 0.22) or between the non-verbal condition and the control group (p = .227). In other words, completing a verbal interference task while cycling resulted in significantly lower performance compared to completing no task (control group), but only slightly lower performance than completing a non-verbal interference task.

Note: Line plot showing the difference between susceptibility to verbal interference for participants who reported that self-talk usually has a positive effect on their performance (n = 19) and participants who reported self-talk sometimes having a positive and sometimes a negative effect on performance (n = 21).

Interestingly, and as illustrated in the figure above, participants stating that they are sometimes positively and sometimes negatively affected by self-talk (it depends) were less affected by verbal interference than those stating that self-talk usually has a positive effect on performance (Positive, p < .001, d = .46), suggesting that the inhibition of self-talk may affect some groups more than others.

The experiment is described in the conference paper “Mind over Body: Investigating Cognitive Control of Cycling Performance with Dual-Task Interference” and was published in 2021.