Psychometric properties of the Persian Version of the Thought Occurrence Questionnaire (cognitive Interference) for Sport

Cognitive interference means disturbing thoughts experienced by athletes while performing tasks, which damaged their performance. Due to the importance of the subject, the present study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Cognitive Interference Questionnaire in Sports. The population consisted of Iranian athletes who had the experience of participating in sports competitions in 2021. A number of 207 athletes were selected in clusters and completed the mindfulness and cognitive interference questionnaires in sports. To examine psychometric properties, construct validity and convergent validity were investigated by exploratory factor analysis through calculating the correlation of the cognitive interference scale with the sports mindfulness scale. To measure reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used. The findings showed that the thought of escape, situation-irrelevant thoughts, and performance worries explain 59.08% of the relevant variance. The results also manifested that the significant correlation between the scales of sports mindfulness and cognitive interference indicated the convergent validity of the construct. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the whole questionnaire and sub-scales: thoughts of escape, situation-irrelevant thoughts, and performance worries confirmed the internal reliability of the scale. The confirmatory factor analysis results (CFI=0.96 and NFI=0.93) also indicated the appropriate fit of the structure. According to the findings, the cognitive interference questionnaire in sports had acceptable validity and reliability among Iranian athletes. Sports coaches, psychologists, and researchers can use this tool in their research.