Studies were obtained through manual and electronic journal searches, review articles, as well as personal correspondence. We used the following databases: EBSCO, SCOPUS, Sport Discus, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES and Medline. Electronic databases were searched using keywords such as self-talk, self-instruction, self-statements, self-verbalizations, verbal cues, stimulus cueing, and thought content instructions in combination with the terms sport, performance, motor performance, and task performance. The search was restricted to studies published in English-language journals. The reference sections of the retrieved articles were manually searched for additional studies.