With the growing popularity of esports, athletes may be able to experience potential cognitive and performance-related benefits as a result of watching others play esports. In the current study, student athletes were randomly assigned to watch a sport esport video or a control esport video and then completed measures of sport-confidence and imagery. It was predicted that participants in the sport esport video group would score higher than the control esport video group in the cognitive efficiency and resilience aspects of sport-confidence, as well as the cognitive general, motivational general-mastery, and motivational general-arousal domains of imagery. The overall results did not support these hypotheses, with the means between groups not statistically differing. Nevertheless, future directions regarding video game use and athletic performance are discussed.
","abstract_html":"<p>With the growing popularity of esports, athletes may be able to experience potential cognitive and performance-related benefits as a result of watching others play esports. In the current study, student athletes were randomly assigned to watch a sport esport video or a control esport video and then completed measures of sport-confidence and imagery. It was predicted that participants in the sport esport video group would score higher than the control esport video group in the cognitive efficiency and resilience aspects of sport-confidence, as well as the cognitive general, motivational general-mastery, and motivational general-arousal domains of imagery. The overall results did not support these hypotheses, with the means between groups not statistically differing. Nevertheless, future directions regarding video game use and athletic performance are discussed.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Mahon, Kelton"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts - Psychology","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Kyle Conlon","Dr. Lauren Brewer","Dr. Linda Bobo"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2022-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:30:37Z","subjects":["esports","athletes","sport-confidence","imagery","observational learning","Psychology","Sports Studies"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/478","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Kyle Conlon","Dr. Lauren Brewer","Dr. Linda Bobo"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Mahon, Kelton"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2022-12-07T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts - Psychology"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["esports","athletes","sport-confidence","imagery","observational learning","Psychology","Sports Studies"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/478"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["With the growing popularity of esports, athletes may be able to experience potential cognitive and performance-related benefits as a result of watching others play esports. In the current study, student athletes were randomly assigned to watch a sport esport video or a control esport video and then completed measures of sport-confidence and imagery. It was predicted that participants in the sport esport video group would score higher than the control esport video group in the cognitive efficiency and resilience aspects of sport-confidence, as well as the cognitive general, motivational general-mastery, and motivational general-arousal domains of imagery. The overall results did not support these hypotheses, with the means between groups not statistically differing. Nevertheless, future directions regarding video game use and athletic performance are discussed.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Effects of Esports on Sport-Confidence and Imagery in Athletes"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Kyle Conlon","Dr. Lauren Brewer","Dr. Linda Bobo"],"dc:creator":["Mahon, Kelton"],"dc:date.available":["2022-12-07T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["With the growing popularity of esports, athletes may be able to experience potential cognitive and performance-related benefits as a result of watching others play esports. In the current study, student athletes were randomly assigned to watch a sport esport video or a control esport video and then completed measures of sport-confidence and imagery. It was predicted that participants in the sport esport video group would score higher than the control esport video group in the cognitive efficiency and resilience aspects of sport-confidence, as well as the cognitive general, motivational general-mastery, and motivational general-arousal domains of imagery. The overall results did not support these hypotheses, with the means between groups not statistically differing. Nevertheless, future directions regarding video game use and athletic performance are discussed.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/478"],"dc:subject":["esports","athletes","sport-confidence","imagery","observational learning","Psychology","Sports Studies"],"dc:title":["The Effects of Esports on Sport-Confidence and Imagery in Athletes"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts - Psychology"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:30:37Z"}