https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score Changes to this claim in Matteo Campagna's evidence registry: its status, its year-by-year history, revisions of the page. en-gb https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-scoreThe studies of archers split, and for years they split tidily: where anxiety is measured shortly before a competition with a competitive anxiety scale the link appears, and where trait anxiety, mood on training days or cortical activity before the release is measured instead, nothing appears at all. On the side of the link stand the largest sample the question has, two hundred and seven Malaysian archers at r = -0.55, and a run of correlations between -0.45 and -0.7 in Malaysia, Turkey and Brazil; the two highest, -0.84 and -0.86, come from one Korean laboratory and about twenty university women, all between 341 and 355 points out of 360 in 2016, so they count as a single line of evidence. On the other side stand one hundred and eighty-eight US archers of every level, where no scale reaches 0.17, the kyudo practitioners, who count as archers in this registry, and a few small samples, with two results that even run the other way. Part of the explanation comes from a study of eighteen elite Turkish archers: before a national competition the anxiety they report is identical to that before a training session, and what does not vary cannot show up in the score. In 2026, though, even the line between measures starts to crack, in two journals with questionable editorial standards: forty-five Iranian archers measured an hour before qualification confirm the link, r = -0.61, while eighty Indian juniors measured with the same family of scales before a national championship show none of it.claim:ansia-punteggio:revision:2026-09-12:4Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaThe two sides grow in the same year. The same Korean laboratory repeats the study on eighteen archers at a fifty-metre event: those who place better report less anxiety thirty minutes before, three minutes before and thirty minutes after, and among the best, anxiety three minutes before correlates with score at -0.86. In the lower-performing archers, by contrast, anxiety stays high all day, linked from one moment to the next. On the other side, thirty-nine Turkish beginners, with a competitive anxiety scale, show no link with score at all. A third study the same year, on fifty-four Chinese archers, even finds that the personality factor tied to tension goes with slightly higher scores, but it measures personality traits rather than competition anxiety, and it sits in a venue with questionable editorial standards: it stays as context. Contested: the strong correlations keep coming from one laboratory and about twenty university archers.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-09-10:2018Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaIn competition, across one hundred and eighty-nine Indonesian archers, one extra point of anxiety is worth nine to fourteen fewer qualification points, and the cost grows with distance, from forty to seventy metres. But the standardised coefficients published are mathematically impossible, and that evidence, the year's largest, is also the least reliable. The year's other two studies, both in journals with questionable editorial standards, split on precisely the ground where the link seemed to hold: forty-five Iranian archers measured an hour before qualification give r = -0.61, while eighty Indian juniors measured with a competitive anxiety scale before a national championship show no link at all. Contested, and the line separating measures taken close to competition from the rest grows less sharp.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-08-06:2026Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaThe largest batch of evidence on archers arrives, and it splits along the same line. In favour: forty-four Malaysian recurve archers at state and national level, r = -0.45 on a thirty-six arrow score at seventy metres; thirty-seven Brazilians measured on the morning of their championship, r = -0.7, with the link stronger on competition day than on a practice day; twenty-two young Turkish archers, where fear of judgement carries the weight, r = -0.63 after a stress task. Against: twenty Malaysian compound archers, where cognitive and somatic anxiety do not separate the better from the less good, and, in the young Turkish archers, the physical and cognitive components, which are related to nothing. On the same side, in a journal with questionable editorial standards, thirty-two Malaysian juniors training at home during the COVID-19 isolation, where anxiety is not linked to the score and the correlations even come out positive. The status stays contested, and where the link does appear it is now clearer what it runs through: worry and fear of judgement, not bodily symptoms.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-08-06:2023Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaA Taiwanese group looks for anxiety not in the questionnaire but in the brain: in the two seconds before release, frontal theta and alpha activity in twenty-four pre-elite archers with high and low cognitive anxiety are the same. It is a different kind of null, with no score involved, and the picture does not move.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-08-06:2010Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaFive kyudo practitioners followed between training and an inter-university competition, who count as archers in this registry: somatic anxiety rises sharply in competition and stays high from the first end to the last, yet neither it nor heart rate is related to the proportion of hits. The second study on archers points the same way as the first, and none is in favour. The status stays contradicted rather than moving to refuted, because this second paper rests on five people and the pattern its author describes is not tested: there are two studies, but only one is built to carry the weight.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-08-06:1994Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaThe largest sample the question has arrives: two hundred and seven Malaysian competitive archers, the SAS-2 scale against a score over seventy-two arrows, r = -0.55 with p below 0.001, and it is the firmest association in favour, even though it is published as an extended conference abstract. The same year, two results run the other way. In thirty-two Indian archers a predictive model finds that higher concentration-disruption anxiety pushes the predicted score up rather than down, and the authors themselves note that this runs against the literature. And in eighteen elite Turkish archers, the anxiety reported half an hour before a national competition is identical to that before a training session: this is the most useful explanation of the split, because what does not vary cannot show up in the score. Contested.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-07-01:2025Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaThe cleanest null of all, because each archer serves as his own control: in fifteen university kyudo practitioners, tension and anxiety before shooting are identical between their better and worse days, 47.7 against 47.4. It measures mood on training days, though, not anxiety at a competition. The same year brings no new measurement of the link, only a confirmation of how the scales hang together: in the twelve Hong Kong archers, confidence goes with less cognitive anxiety, r = -0.717, and mental and physical anxiety travel almost always together, r = 0.868. The contrary side widens, the status does not change.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-07-01:2024Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaA cross-sectional study of thirty-seven under-12 archers in West Jakarta finds a link, but a positive one: more reported anxiety and a higher score, a path coefficient of 0.398 with p below 0.001, and the authors do not comment on the sign. It clarifies nothing, and the picture stays split.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-07-01:2022Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaThe picture was split and stays split. On the null side comes a study of ten compound women at club level, where state anxiety is unrelated to score either during menstruation or in the rest of the cycle: the correlations have the right sign, -0.47 and -0.55, but with ten people that is what chance produces. A journal with questionable editorial standards and a tiny sample: on its own this evidence moves nothing.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-07-01:2019Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-score#storiaThe first result in favour, and it comes from four people. In four Malaysian Olympic archers the intensity of unpleasant emotions experienced as harmful explains almost half the difference in score between one trial and the next, with r = -0.94 across two simulated competitions. The correlation collapses to -0.69 as soon as the third competition is added, repeated measures are treated as independent and the journal's editorial standards are doubtful. A questionable venue does not decide a status on its own, but from this point the bibliography holds studies of archers pointing both ways, and contradicted no longer describes the picture: contested, with the warning that the side in favour rests on four athletes.claim:ansia-punteggio:history_entry:2026-07-01:2015Wed, 01 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/anxiety-and-scoreclaim:ansia-punteggio:new_claim:2026-05-26:contestatoTue, 26 May 2026 08:00:00 GMT