Abstract
Recent years have witnessed increased research interest from psychologists in constructs
which describe individual di¤erences among athletes in their choice of cognitive strategies in
competitive situations. Two such constructs are Ôexplanatory styleÕ (or the typical manner in
which people seek to explain the events that they experience) and Ôattentional styleÕ (or their
characteristic preference for certain concentration strategies). The purpose of this chapter is to
evaluate the relationship between these stylistic constructs and athletic performance. Following
a review of relevant trends and issues in research on this topic, a case study is presented in which
the preferred attentional strategies of marathon runners are explored. Finally, some conclusions
are drawn about the empirical and theoretical beneÞts for psychology which arise from the
study of cognitive style constructs in sport performers. ( 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All