Mental Fatigue Might Be Not So Bad for Exercise Performance After All: A Systematic Review and Bias-Sensitive Meta-Analysis

• Published in: Journal of cognition Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 38
• Main Authors: Holgado, Darías, Sanabria, Daniel, Perales, José C., Vadillo, Miguel A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ubiquity Press 09.10.2020
• Subjects: cognitive control; executive functions; mental effort; Review; statistical analysis
• ISSN: 2514-4820; 2514-4820
• DOI: 10.5334/joc.126

There is an ongoing debate in the scientific community regarding whether a state of mental fatigue may have a negative effect upon a range of objective and subjective measures of human performance. This issue has attracted attention from several fields, including sport and exercise sciences. In fact, a considerable body of literature in the sport science field has suggested that performing a long and demanding cognitive task might lead to a state of mental fatigue, impairing subsequent exercise performance, although research in this field has shown contradictory results. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to investigate these inconsistent findings. The analysis yielded small-to-medium effects of mental fatigue on exercise performance, d z = 0.50, and RPE, d z = 0.21. However, a three-parameter selection model also revealed evidence of publication or reporting biases, suggesting that the bias-corrected estimates might be substantially lower (0.08 and 0.10, respectively) and non-significant. In sum, current evidence does not provide conclusive support for the claim that mental fatigue has a negative influence on exercise performance.