@article{64859,
  abstract     = {{This study investigated whether external effort mobilization through try-harder instructions enhances performance in complex motor tasks, as reflected by the reduction of costs associated with producing a deceptive action. Basketball passing movements with and without head fakes were examined in a reaction-time paradigm. Participants were generally instructed to initiate the movement as fast and accurately as possible, while try-harder instructions were presented in 25 % of trials, prompting participants to mobilize all their cognitive resources to perform even faster. To investigate if athletic expertise modulates the potential effects of effort mobilization, basketball novices and experienced players were tested. Results demonstrated that try-harder instructions generally improved participants’ performance, facilitating faster response initiation times and movement execution, as well as a specific reduction in initiation time variability. Novices benefited more than experienced players, indicating that effort results in greater improvement when complex motor actions (for example, passes with head fakes) are not yet fully stabilized and lack automated fluency. This pattern suggests that effort enhances performance in complex actions when performance is limited by the amount of cognitive capacity available, supporting the coordination of partly conflicting movement components within tight temporal constraints. The findings extend previous research on effort mobilization from simple to complex motor tasks. Try-harder instructions appear to enhance performance primarily by reducing attentional lapses rather than generally improving processing speed. Future research should investigate the effectiveness of effort mobilization in experienced athletes in situations of high concurrent cognitive load.}},
  author       = {{Böer, Nils Tobias and Steinborn, Michael B. and Weigelt, Matthias and Güldenpenning, Iris}},
  issn         = {{1469-0292}},
  journal      = {{Psychology of Sport and Exercise}},
  keywords     = {{Effort, Try-harder instruction, Deception, Basketball, Head fake, Fake production}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier BV}},
  title        = {{{Mobilizing effort in complex motor tasks: Try-harder instructions in deceptive actions}}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.psychsport.2026.103083}},
  volume       = {{84}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}

@article{62111,
  abstract     = {{<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
          <jats:p>The execution of incompatible actions imposes costs on action planning, commonly known as response-response incompatibility-costs. This phenomenon is also evident in sports: A basketball player who performs a pass in one direction whilst orienting the head into the contrary direction (pass with head fake) needs more time to initiate the action as if pass direction and head orientation are the same (pass without head fake).</jats:p>
          <jats:p>The aim of this study was twofold: First, we present a re-analysis of the data from Böer et al. (Psychological Research 88:523–524, 2024) using mixture effect modelling (Miller, Behavior Research Methods 38:92–106, 2006) explore if fake-production costs manifest continuously (uniform effect) in all participants or if some participants show fake-production costs occasionally but substantially (mixed effect). Second, we collected data of a control group which was analysed with the previous data of the practice group and fitted initiation times (ITs) to an ex-Gaussian distribution.</jats:p>
          <jats:p>The analysis of mixture effects revealed that most participants exhibited a uniform effect when they didn’t have time to mentally prepare the movement. This pattern was not changed by practice, suggesting fake-production costs can’t be overcome by practice alone without mental preparation time.</jats:p>
          <jats:p>The analysis of mean ITs revealed improvements in the practice group but not in the control group, independent of the type of pass performed. The distribution analyses complemented these findings as it showed that the improvement in participants’ performance with increasing practice can mainly be attributed to a reduction of the exponential part of the distribution (parameter tau).</jats:p>}},
  author       = {{Böer, Nils Tobias and Schütz, Christoph and Weigelt, Matthias and Güldenpenning, Iris}},
  issn         = {{0340-0727}},
  journal      = {{Psychological Research}},
  keywords     = {{Sport Psychology, Sport Science, Deception, Distribution Analysis}},
  number       = {{2}},
  publisher    = {{Springer Science and Business Media LLC}},
  title        = {{{How does practice modulate fake-production costs in a basketball task? Analyses of frequency distributions and mixture effects}}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s00426-025-02084-6}},
  volume       = {{89}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

@inproceedings{62116,
  author       = {{Böer, Nils Tobias and Güldenpenning, Iris and Weigelt, Matthias}},
  booktitle    = {{57th Herbsttreffen der experimentellen Kognitionspsychologie (HExKoP)}},
  keywords     = {{Deception, Sport Psychology, Social Interaction}},
  location     = {{Trier}},
  title        = {{{The mere presence of a social partner modulates fake-production costs}}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

@inproceedings{65259,
  author       = {{Böer, Nils Tobias and Güldenpenning, Iris and Weigelt, Matthias}},
  booktitle    = {{67th Conference of Experimental Psychologists}},
  editor       = {{Lê-Hoa Võ, Melissa and Fiebach, Christian and Shing, Yee Lee and Sammler, Daniela and Windmann, Sabine and Kaiser, Jochen}},
  keywords     = {{deception, action preparation, perception, movement planning, sport psychology}},
  location     = {{Frankfurt am Main}},
  pages        = {{132}},
  title        = {{{Differences of producing head fakes with and without a social partner}}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

@inproceedings{57511,
  author       = {{Böer, Nils Tobias and Weigelt, Matthias and Güldenpenning, Iris}},
  editor       = {{Fröber, Kerstin and Abel, Magdalena and Bäuml, Karl-Heinz and Dreisbach, Gesine and Kliegl, Oliver and Köster, Moritz and Lingnau, Angelika and Volberg, Gregor and Götz, Felix J.}},
  keywords     = {{action preparation, perception, movement planning, deception}},
  location     = {{ Regensburg }},
  pages        = {{77}},
  title        = {{{Try harder! - The influence of effort instructions on fake production costs in basketball novices and experts}}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}

@inproceedings{47630,
  author       = {{Böer, Nils Tobias and Güldenpenning, Iris and Weigelt, Matthias}},
  booktitle    = {{Abstracts of the 55th Autumn Meeting of Experimental Cognitive Psychology (HExKoP)}},
  editor       = {{Bogenschütz, Luisa and Fenske, Pia and Ayatollahi, Shabnamalsadat and Hamzeloo, Mohammad and Montoya, Gustavo Adolfo León and Viegas, Lisa and Baess, Pamela and Hackländer, Ryan}},
  keywords     = {{action preparation, perception, movement planning, deception}},
  location     = {{Hildesheim}},
  pages        = {{16--17}},
  title        = {{{The influence of effort instructions on fake production costs in basketball novices and experts}}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}