Background Basketball shooting performance is crucial for match outcomes, often influenced by environmental pressure and anxiety. This study investigates how increased task demands and outcome consequences affect anxiety, mental workload, and shooting performance in multitasking basketball contexts. Additionally, it examines the moderating role of inhibitory control (IC) on these effects. Methods Thirty-nine youth basketball athletes (26 males and 13 females; age 14.9 ± 1.3 years) participated in two experimental sessions with varying levels of environmental manipulation: Low Environmental Manipulation (LEM) and High Environmental Manipulation (HEM), differing in the cognitive-motor complexity of the task and the consequences associated with performance outcomes. An intrasubject, repeated measures design was used, where participants performed multitasking activities involving dribbling and shooting under different rules and scoring systems. Anxiety, mental workload, and shooting performance were measured, along with participants' baseline IC. Results The HEM condition significantly increased anxiety (p < 0.001) and mental workload (p < 0.001) compared to the LEM condition, leading to a notable decrease in shooting performance (p < 0.001). Participants with higher IC exhibited better performance (p = 0.007 for LEM, p = 0.046 for HEM) and lower mental workload. Regression analyses indicated that cognitive-motor performance accuracy (p = 0.016) and mental activity (p = 0.004) were significant predictors of shooting performance and state anxiety (p < 0.001). Conclusions Environmental pressure, through increased task demands and outcome consequences, elevates anxiety and mental workload, negatively impacting basketball shooting performance. Higher IC moderates these effects, suggesting that athletes with better inhibitory abilities can maintain performance under pressure. These findings highlight the importance of designing training programs that simulate competitive pressure and develop athletes' cognitive control capacities. Highlights • Increasing task complexity and error consequences heightens environmental pressure. • Higher environmental pressure tasks increase anxiety and mental load. • Environmental pressure worsen basketball players' shooting performance. • Athletes' greater inhibitory capacity reduces the pressure's impact. • Training strategies incorporating unpredictable scenarios may enhance inhibitory control.
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