Temporary Fatigue Effects in a Gross Motor Skill

Abstract

75 male college Ss were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups to investigate the comparative effects of initial and initial-plus-interpolated total-body physical fatigue upon learning and performance of a gross motor skill. Each S was tested on the Mirror Target Toss Test before and after the appropriate experimental condition allotted to his group: initial, initial-plus-interpolated, and rest. The data were transformed into learning scores by the percent of possible improvement method and analyzed by a simple analysis of variance. Despite substantial effects on the performance curves, neither initial nor interpolated fatigue had any permanent effect on the acquisition of skill.