Physical fitness and mental performance during and after work

Abstract

Two groups of subjects who differed in physical fitness (24 well-trained and 24 less well-trained male students) participated in an experiment concerned with mental performance during and after physical work. The physical work was matched between the groups in terms of the percentage of maximal work capacity. Three mental tasks were used: task I involved high information load, placing great demands on continuous concentration and switching of attention as well as on short-term memory; task 2 involved paired associate learning with recall following short and long retention delays; task 3 was a multiplication task with great demands on concentration and on short-term memory. Tasks 1 and 2 were performed during the four different work-load conditions and task 3 after the physical work. As expected, heart rate during physical work was about the same in both groups. No intergroup difference was found in mental performance during physical work. However, recovery rate in terms of heart rate was faster, and mental performance after physical work was significantly better in the fit group than in the unfit group. The results indicate that, even though physical work loads were matched between the groups to make subjective effort equal, the fit subjects were more able to resist the negative after-effects of physical effort.