Effects of Mindfulness Practices on Competitive Anxiety among Athletes

Abstract: Emotions play an important role in how people think and act, affecting attention and memory. Research has highlighted how disgust uniquely affects cognition compared to other emotional states. This study aims to examine the effect of disgust-evoking images on nonsense syllable recall through a within-subject experimental design. The study is based on adolescent and young adult sample (N=38) with age ranging from 17 to 26 years. Results revealed that there is a statistically significant difference between the number of nonsense syllables correctly recalled after exposure to neutral images and the number of nonsense syllables correctly recalled after exposure to disgust-evoking images (p = 0.003). These findings can help improve information retention by informing the use of structured instruction and exposure to reduce the disruptive effects of disgust on memory recall. This approach may enhance recall in medical, forensic, and public settings.