Effect of mental fatigue on choice reaction time in male and female swimmers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mental fatigue on choice reaction time in male and female swimmers. 30 swimmers (15 male, 15 female) were participated voluntarily with average age of 22.1. The participants performed the task of choice reaction time in 51 minutes. In this task that included three periods of 17 minutes, with no break, the first 17 minutes was considered as pre-test and the next two periods as post-test. The results showed that mental fatigue to choice reaction time of male and female swimmers had a significant effect in different periods (P≤0.001) and participants had a better reaction time in first period than in second and third periods. The participants also had a better reaction time in second period than in third period. There was a significant difference between the choice reaction time of male and female swimmers in different stages of measurement (P≤0.001). The choice reaction time of females was better than males in all of three periods. These results support the perceptual narrowing theory such as parallel informative processing model and Easterbrook’s cues utilization theory.