Metacognition and Goal-Directed Self-Talk

Goal-directed self-talk is an expression of a controlled mental processes deliberately employed to solve a problem or make progress on a task. Goal-directed thinking usually occurs during reasoning, problem solving, and decision-making, and has therefore been linked with athletes’ “self-regulation” – the process by which individuals modify their thoughts, feelings and/or behaviour to achieve desired goals. The ability to develop metacognition (that is, people’s knowledge of, and control over, their own mental processes) is a key element of effective self-regulation. In this chapter, metacognition will be defined and its basic components (namely, metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive skills) will be described. A brief overview of metacognition research in the sporting domain with a particular emphasis on expert performance will be presented. Finally, suggestions will be provided to integrate metacognitive processes in order to optimise the delivery of self-talk interventions.