Effort Instructions and Preparation Time in Basketball Head Fakes: An Ex-Gaussian Analysis of Fake- Production Costs

This analysis examined how try-harder instructions and preparation time modulate fake-production costs in basketball head fakes. Using an openly available dataset of 40 male players (22 novices, 18 experienced), ex-Gaussian parameters (mu, tau) were derived from initiation-time distributions for passes with and without head fakes across three interstimulus intervals (0, 500, 1000 ms) and two instruction conditions (Standard, Effort). Fake-production costs were computed as within-subject differences (Fake - Pass) for mu and tau and analyzed with linear mixed-effects models and within-subject effect sizes. Mu-based fake-production costs were large at 0 ms and markedly reduced at 500 and 1000 ms, indicating that preparation time strongly attenuates the mean latency costs associated with generating deceptive actions. Effort instructions did not reliably change mu-based costs but selectively reduced tau-based variability costs, particularly for novices at long preparation intervals, consistent with a reduction of attentional lapses rather than a uniform speeding of processing. These findings refine accounts of deceptive action production by showing that preparation time primarily mitigates coordination demands reflected in mean RT, whereas short-term effort mobilization preferentially stabilizes the tail of the RT distribution, especially when deceptive skills are not yet fully automatized.