Exploring Response Inhibition, the Behavioral Inhibition System and Possible Sex Differences in Athletes and Non-Athletes

Lina J. K. Eriksson (), Örjan Sundin and Billy Jansson
Additional contact information
Lina J. K. Eriksson: Department of Psychology and Social Work, Mid Sweden University, 83125 Östersund, Sweden
Örjan Sundin: Department of Psychology and Social Work, Mid Sweden University, 83125 Östersund, Sweden
Billy Jansson: Department of Psychology and Social Work, Mid Sweden University, 83125 Östersund, Sweden

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 14, 1-10

Abstract: Background: The objective of this study was to revisit the question concerning whether athletes are better than non-athletes at fundamental cognitive abilities, such as inhibitory control, in addition to also focusing on motivational dispositions and possible sex differences. Adding the latter could be crucial since both inhibitory control and motivational dispositions, such as approach and avoidance, are central to goal-directed behavior. Methods: This study’s sample was composed of 93 participants (40 males): 29 biathletes; 30 alpine skiers; and 34 non-athletes. A non-sport-specific stop-signal task was used for the assessment of inhibitory control in terms of response inhibition, and the motivational dispositions were assessed with the BIS/BAS scales. Results: The results showed that there were no differences between the two different sports or non-athletes with regard to response inhibition. However, females showed significantly slower response inhibition than males ( p = 0.018) and scored significantly higher on the trait variable BIS ( p < 0.001). Conclusions: The results from this study suggest that it might be meaningful to explore the contribution of sex differences and motivational dispositions on response inhibition in conjunction with different types of sports.

Keywords: behavior mechanisms; executive function; goals; personality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/14/6340/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/14/6340/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:14:p:6340-:d:1190839

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().