Mental Fatigue Impair the Effect of Feedback to Successful Trials in Motor Learning

Mental fatigue is a psychological state created by long periods of cognitive activity. The effect of mental fatigue on learning of motor skills has been less studied. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mental fatigue on the effectiveness of feedback to successful trials in learning of force production task. For this purpose, 44 non-athlete male students (18-25 years) were divided into four groups based on mental fatigue and type of feedback. Stroop test was used to create mental fatigue. MFI and VAS questionnaires were used to ensure that mental fatigue was created. At the acquisition phase, all participants in 12 block of six trials to produce criterion power. Immediate retention tests and transfer test 1, 10 minutes later and transfer test 2 was performed 24 hours after acquisition phase without feedback. To analyze the data, mixed ANOVA with repeated measures for the acquisition phase, and two-way analysis of variance were used in retention and transfer tests. The findings of this study showed that in the acquisition phase, the effect of blocks was significant and all groups have significantly improved during the acquisition phase. The results of retention and transference tests showed that the main effect of mental fatigue was significant, but the main effect of feedback and interaction of mental fatigue with feedback were not significant (except in the retention test). These findings suggested that mental fatigue may lead to the loss of benefits of feedback to successful trials and decrease of motor learning.