Does stress type and level affect gut decisions in sport?

Two studies examined the influence of stress type (no, mental, physical) and level (low/no, moderate, high) on the major predictions of the "take the first" (TTF) heuristic. In each study, participants performed a mental stress condition (i.e., colour word task and mental arithmetic) and/or a physical stress condition (i.e., incremental running on a treadmill). Decision-making trials utilised video clips of offensive situations in basketball and participants had to decide what the person with the ball should do next. Outcome variables included TTF frequency, quality of first option, speed of first option, and number of generated options. Study 1 investigated the option generation and selection process of 100 undergraduate students. 20 participants were randomly assigned to each of the 5 stress conditions. Results indicated that participants in high stress groups were slower to generate first options than participants in lower stress groups. No other significant differences were found. Study 2 replicated the design and aim of Study 1 using a within-person methodology. 42 undergraduate students completed all 5 stress conditions during 2 different testing sessions. Once again, high stress was associated with slower decisions. Overall, TTF was found to be an ecologically rational heuristic for making decisions under different levels of mental and physical stress in sport. However, high levels of stress may slow the option generation process.