The concept of risky sport has been defined by Breivik as a sport in which participants accept the possibility of injury or death as intrinsically characteristic of the activity (Breivik, 1995). Therefore, sports such as skydiving, alpine skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering and rock climbing, can be considered high-risk sports since they are characterized by the presence of dangerous elements, for instance high speed (Shealy, Ettlinger, & Johnson, 2005).
The implementation of risky behaviour could be associated with sensation seeking that is a personality trait characterized by tendencies to undertake novel and intense experiences, to pursue feelings and sensations, with the availability of taking risks for the pleasure of such an experience (Zuckerman, 1994). Several studies have shown that subjects who perform high-risk sports have higher levels of sensation seeking than those who perform low-risk ones (Baretta, Greco, & Steca, 2017; Jack & Ronan, 1998; Freixanet, 1991). Moreover, when there is the guarantee of maintaining high levels of excitement, athletes are willing to undertake different activities; for example, Franken (1998) showed that expert mountaineers have a greater predisposition to try risky climbs despite non-expert ones.
In high-risk sports, several studies have shown that participants have high levels of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) that is the individual’s belief in their own ability to organize and execute the course of action required to produce certain results (Brody, Hatfield & Spalding, 1988). Llewellyn and Sanchez (2008) have shown how climbers with high levels of self-efficacy are more likely to take risks than those with low levels of self-efficacy; furthermore, the results of Baretta, Greco and Steca (2017) demonstrated that sensation seeking and self-efficacy represent predictors of the performance in other sports like the high-risk free-diving discipline.
Moreover, the level of expertise can be a predictor of sport performance. It is known that systematic and regular participation in exercise enhances sport performance (Billat, 2001). Savelsbergh, Cañal-Bruland, and van der Kamp (2012) examined the benefits of months of sport practice on the reduction of the number of errors; in particular the authors demonstrated that the increase in duration, intensity and structure of training played a major role in improving performance.
So far, we have seen individual factors that can affect sport performance. Other factors can be related to contextual features.
With respect to contextual features, athletes need to respond efficiently to different environmental stimuli, and in time, well-learned motor skills exploit a lesser amount of cognitive load leaving resources available to process external stimuli (Abernethy et al., 2007; Beilock, Wierenga, & Carr, 2002). Contextual features can be manipulated through the dual-task paradigm. The dual-task paradigm involves a primary task (sport related) and a secondary task (e.g., focusing attention and memorizing items in a cognitive task). Dual-task demands are very common in sport, and the literature demonstrates the interference of a secondary task on performance due to the limitation of cognitive resources (Kahneman, 1973; Fabio & Towey, in press). In fact, the secondary task causes a greater effort in terms of cognitive load and attentional resources related to working memory (WM) and, consequently, may affect the performance in the primary task (Beilock, Wierenga, et al., 2002; Fabio & Towey, in press).
To analyse the role of cognitive load in this study the dual-task paradigm was used. In sport performance a double activity can be useful to verify the levels of the reached performance automatization. Beilock, Carr et al. (2002) examined the effects of interference in dual-task paradigm on soccer players. The authors evaluated the differences in a group of experts and beginners during a dribbling task while simultaneously performing an auditory control task; the results demonstrated higher levels of interference for the beginners, while expert performance was damaged only when using the non-dominant foot (Beilock, Carr, et al. 2002).
In recent years, despite the high prevalence of injuries, high-risk sports such as rock climbing, became more popular (Langseth & Salvesen; 2018; Jones, Asghar & Llewellyn, 2008; Pain & Pain, 2005). All the factors here analysed can be important in climbing sports; as well as other sport disciplines, rock climbing presents physical and psychological effort (Saul, Steinmetz, Lehmann & Schilling, 2019). Practitioners are required to face continuous choices (e.g., choosing the footholds and supports to use), need great planning skills, and have to manage the feelings that may arise (e.g., the fear of flying, the desire to give up, etc.). Different types of climbing can present different degrees of risk: a) in the "roped-party leader" climb, subjects are secured by the second roped-party through specific safety measures. Anchorage points are used during the climb, and the rope is needed reduce the weight in case of a fall. The climbers who perform this type of climb, in case of mistakes can "fly" 2–8 meters, going against injuries such as spraining an ankle or breaking a leg (Martha, Sanchez & Goma`i-Freixanet, 2008; Hohlrieder, Lutz, Schubert, Eschertzhuber, & Mair, 2007). This type of climb is considered as a "high-risk activity"; b) in the "Top rope", as “a second” or “moulinette”, the rope is positioned previously from the roped-party leader, which secures it from above. The subjects are secured with the top rope system by using a Gri-gri, that is a self-locking delay device. This type of climb is less risky than the first and is often used by beginners.
According to the previous results regarding risk-taking in extreme sports, the role played by self-efficacy and by contextual features, the present study has investigated these factors in sport performance. More in detail, three hypotheses were suggested: a) by considering that self-efficacy influences sport performance in different disciplines, it is assumed that even in climbing, self-efficacy determines the performance of the subjects, both in low-risk and high-risk tasks; b) considering that climbing as a roped-party leader is characterized by greater risks, it is expected that sensation seeking influences performance in the high-risk discipline but not in the low-risk one; c) with reference to the contextual features, in this study the dual-task was used. Since cognitive resources are engaged for the performance of the secondary task it is hypothesized that the presence of interference worsens performance for both groups.