Students in Focus
How does mental fatigue impact athletes? A ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø researcher is trying to find out
When Yleia Mariano made the move from Sydney to Canberra to study a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Bachelor of Sport and Excercise Science, they had no idea the experience would kick-start a love of study, learning and research.
Now a PhD student at the University of Canberra Research Institute for Sport and Exercise (ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøRISE), Yleia is investigating the effects of mental fatigue on athletes, prompted by their own experiences while playing team sports.
Yleia says they noticed that during busy study periods they were less motivated to go and play and their performance was sometimes negatively impacted.
“At a community sport level, there is so much going on outside of the game, and I remember at one point I was having a really stressful weekend, and just didn’t want to go to my game,” Yleia says.
“I found depending on what was going on in my life, sometimes going to the game would make me feel better – being outside and hanging out with friends – but sometimes I knew straight away that going was a mistake, and my performance was basically at the bare minimum.”
These observations led Yleia to question the relationship between activities causing mental fatigue both within the game (for example, one bad pass or tackle affecting performance for the remainder of the game), and outside of the game (like their brain fog after studying, when it came time to play).
“One of the things I know is that part of technical skill execution is attention, it’s so important in what we do and how we execute skills on the field,” Yleia says.
“And so I was curious about that relationship and I realised that attention within the game seemed very related to mental fatigue – but in the research I was reading, nobody was making that connection yet.”
To measure this theory in research participants, Yleia uses the Stroop test (if you think you’re not familiar with the test, there’s a good chance you actually are … it’s the test where colour names are written out in a different colour font) – as well as a computer-based tracking task.
These components make up the first part of Yleia’s study, and they’re currently working on setting up a survey-based study to make up part two of their work.
“This will ask team sport athletes if they think playing a game itself is mentally fatiguing,” Yleia says.
“Like the fact that you focus so hard on one particular thing for 60-90 minutes, does that impact technical performance throughout the game?”
Because of this research, Yleia understands better than most the importance of balance in life, and as a youth mental health advocate, practices what they preach.
One of their hobbies outside of work and study is poetry. They regularly participate in local poetry performances and competitions, and they were crowned the inaugural winner of Canberra Slam: the finale in 2022.
“I’m very involved with the Canberra Slam, which is Canberra’s Slam Poetry event.I often co-host the event, so I’m pretty involved with that community, and write a lot of poetry,” Yleia says.
The next steps in Yleia’s research require more participants to get involved. They’re looking for people who play a team sport for a minimum of 120 minutes a week, and are currently free from injury.
If this sounds like you, reach out to yleia.mariano@canberra.edu.au to find out more and get involved.