Relationship between State and Trait Anxiety, Reaction Time and IQ in Elite, Sub-Elite Athletes and Non-Athletes

Reaction time (RT) is one of the psychomotor skills that determine athletes’ results and also in daily life. RT effective factors are divided into inherent (genetic) and environmental. Among those factors, psychological factors and mental abilities are more important due to the cognitive nature of RT. The aim of this research was to study the relationship between RT, anxiety and IQ of athletes in different skill levels. This relationship was investigated in 85 subjects (in elite and sub elite athletes and no athletes groups) by correlation method. To measure RT, Y1000 devise was used; Spielberger state / trait anxiety inventory (STAI) was used to evaluate anxiety and Raven’s progressive matrices to evaluate IQ. One-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. Results showed that there was a negative significant correlation between choice RT and IQ, and between CRT and state anxiety. Findings supported inverted U hypothesis and it proved the greater influence of IQ with higher complexity of task