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This study examined the separate and combined effects of negative reinforcement and prompting to improve the athletic performance of college athletes. Eleven female varsity lacrosse players who attended a private college in the southeastern United States participated in the study. The team coaches requested help with increasing “pass naming,” (i.e., saying the name of an intended receiver before passing the ball), to alert them of an incoming pass. The procedure included a negative reinforcement component, whereby players could reduce daily required sprints by calling out intended receivers’ names to alert them of incoming passes. An additional prompting procedure included affixing a colorful band on players’ sticks near the head, an area they frequently reference to ensure proper orientation, to prompt them to name passes. The effects of negative reinforcement and prompting during practices was evaluated using a reversal design. Results indicated substantial improvements in pass naming with the negative reinforcement and prompting procedure in place.

Research related to improving athletic performance is well established within the behavioral literature, encompassing interventions across a wide range of skill levels (Luiselli et al., 2011). Additionally, various types of sports are represented within the research, such as basketball (Kladopoulos & McComas, 2001), speed skating (Anderson & Kirkpatrick, 2002), swimming (Hume & Grossman, 1992), dancing (Quinn et al., 2017), and tennis (Ziegler, 1987). Common interventions to improve athletic performance primarily include positive reinforcement approaches, and typically involve multicomponent treatments that include some combination of goal setting (Ward & Carnes, 2002), feedback (Guadagnoli et al., 2002), public posting (Smith & Ward, 2006), self-talk (Rogerson & Hrycaiko, 2002), and modeling (Zetou et al., 2002). Procedures such as negative reinforcement or punishment approaches are far less represented within the literature. Furthermore, when these procedures are implemented, they are included as part of a treatment package. For...