The effect of cognitive fatigue on decision making in sports

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the effects of cognitive fatigue in sports decisions. Nonathletes were exposed to a five minutes congruent Stroop task and incongruent Stroop task to establish a baseline and assess the effects of exercise in this task. Basketball athletes cycled on a bicycle ergometer till reaching target heart rate (THR) and performed two sets of five minute Stroop task (one set of congruent trails only and one of incongruent trails only). Each Stroop task set was followed by a basketball video judgement task. Both athletes and non-athletes were significantly slower in reacting to incongruent Stroop trials compared to congruent trials. Furthermore, athletes made more errors when presented with the incongruent Stroop version. Physical activity affected reaction time difference between athletes and non-athletes: participants performing both activities, cycling and Stroop task, were significantly slower on the Stroop task than those only performing the Stroop task. The basketball group was significantly slower when responding to the video judgement task when exposed to the incongruent trails beforehand compared to decisions made after the congruent trials. Moreover, athletes seem to suffer further onset fatigue as their reaction time in decision to the last videos deteriorated compared to the initial videos. Results suggest that cognitive fatigue caused by incongruent trials of the Stroop task led to athletes’ slower responses when making basketball related decisions. Mental fatigue affects attention and the ability to use important information to perform efficiently. Furthermore, results suggest that cognitive processing suffers a decline when tested during exercise due to resources, competition and attention allocation. Understanding how mental fatigue affects sports performance and other physical and cognitive demanding activities is key to minimize such impairments.