The influence of sport expertise on response and cognitive inhibition

Research suggests that sporting experts show better response inhibition. Less is known about how expert athletes use cognitive inhibition to ‘forget’ previous errors (termed expertise-induced-amnesia). Moreover, whether the relevance of sporting expertise is greater at high-pressure, compared to low-pressure is also unclear. The aim of the present study was to examine if sporting expertise predicted response inhibition (effectiveness and efficiency) and cognitive inhibition (error awareness) and the impact of pressure levels on these relationships. Forty-five participants completed a measure of sporting expertise and a modified Stop Signal Task under two pressure conditions (i.e., high- and low-pressure). Regression results suggested that expertise only significantly predicted response inhibition effectiveness and efficiency at high-pressure. Interestingly, error awareness at high- and low-pressure were independent of sporting expertise. Finally, change scores across pressure conditions were small and near zero for all participants, not just experts, suggesting that all individuals performed similarly across low- and high-pressure conditions. Sporting expertise appears to facilitate response inhibition at high-pressure but the exact methods in which experts ‘forget’ errors and maintain performance remains unknown (i.e., might not be cognitive inhibition).