Spatial Working Memory Performance Degraded in Students by Mental Fatigue
Oral Presentation
Paper ID : 1870-SSRC
Authors
1MSc at Motor control and Learning, Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Health, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in Sport, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Health, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. (Corresponding Author), Email: shahzadtahmaseb@ut.ac.ir
Abstract
Abstract
Background:
Fatigue is associated with decreased efficiency, alertness, physical capacity, work motivation, memory, attention, concentration, and ultimately with functional impairment. Fatigue, a gradual and cumulative process in forms of physical and mental fatigue, is a condition caused by mental stress or reduced efficiency of muscles or organs due to long-term activity.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mental fatigue on spatial working memory performance.
Methods:
This semi-experimental study was conducted on a group of 21 physical education students (mean age:22.5) in the University of Tehran sports and health sciences department.after giving informed consent, the Participants (all right-handed with normal or corrected visual) completed Vienna Test System spatial memory task, as pre and post-test. Mental fatigue was induced by Stroop task for 15 minutes. The data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS 26.0), the paired t-test (P≤ .05) was used to determine the significance of changes in the post-test
Results:
The results of the paired t-test showed that the spatial memory performance in the post-test (38.86±23.84) compared to the pre-test (59.14±23.72) has decreased significantly (t (20) =4.895, P=0.005), Also the response time in the post-test (55.14±10.36) has increased compared to the pre-test (50.38±8.30) (t (20) =-2.732 P=0.013).
Conclusions:
The results in this research shows that mental fatigue increases response time and decreases spatial memory performance. Therefore, we suggest preventing mental fatigue so that spatial memory is not disturbed. If mental fatigue is created, we should consider solutions to neutralize these destructive effects in future research.
Background:
Fatigue is associated with decreased efficiency, alertness, physical capacity, work motivation, memory, attention, concentration, and ultimately with functional impairment. Fatigue, a gradual and cumulative process in forms of physical and mental fatigue, is a condition caused by mental stress or reduced efficiency of muscles or organs due to long-term activity.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mental fatigue on spatial working memory performance.
Methods:
This semi-experimental study was conducted on a group of 21 physical education students (mean age:22.5) in the University of Tehran sports and health sciences department.after giving informed consent, the Participants (all right-handed with normal or corrected visual) completed Vienna Test System spatial memory task, as pre and post-test. Mental fatigue was induced by Stroop task for 15 minutes. The data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS 26.0), the paired t-test (P≤ .05) was used to determine the significance of changes in the post-test
Results:
The results of the paired t-test showed that the spatial memory performance in the post-test (38.86±23.84) compared to the pre-test (59.14±23.72) has decreased significantly (t (20) =4.895, P=0.005), Also the response time in the post-test (55.14±10.36) has increased compared to the pre-test (50.38±8.30) (t (20) =-2.732 P=0.013).
Conclusions:
The results in this research shows that mental fatigue increases response time and decreases spatial memory performance. Therefore, we suggest preventing mental fatigue so that spatial memory is not disturbed. If mental fatigue is created, we should consider solutions to neutralize these destructive effects in future research.
Keywords