Changes in Perceived Mental Load and Motor Performance during Practice-to-Learn and Practice-to-Maintain in Basketball

Abstract

Background: Attentional resource allocation during sports practice is associated with the players’ perceived mental load. However, few ecological studies address this problem by considering the players’ characteristics (e.g., practice experience, skill and cognition). Therefore, this study aimed to analyse the dose-response effect of two different types of practice, each with different learning objectives, on mental load and motor performance by using a linear mixed model analysis. Method: Forty-four university students (age 20.36 ± 3.13 years) participated in this study. Two sessions were conducted, one based on a standard rules 1 × 1 basketball situation (“practice to maintain”) and one with motor, temporal and spatial restrictions in 1 × 1 tasks (“practice to learn”). Results: “Practice to learn” produced a higher perceived mental load (NASA-TLX scale) and a worse performance than “practice to maintain”, but was moderated by experience and inhibition (p = 0.001). The same happens in the most demanding restriction (i.e., temporal, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: The results showed that increasing the difficulty of 1 × 1 situations through restrictions harmed the player’s performance and increased their perceived mental load. These effects were moderated by previous basketball experience and the player’s inhibition capacity, so the difficulty adjustment should be based on the athletes themselves.

Effects of Contextual Variables on Match Load in a Professional Soccer Team Attending to the Different Season Periods

“…Specifically, all the variables presented higher values in away matches when compared to home ones (Cognitive load, 7.49 vs. 7.17; Emotional load, 7.39 vs. 7.02; Affective load, 7.44 vs. 7.08). These results seem understandable, as it has been shown previously a clear relationship between increases in perceived mental load and more demanding contexts [43]; however, these higher mental load values are not consistent for all match outcomes in our study. Several authors have reported that cognitive load is related to the emotional state of the athletes and teams [44], which is sustainable with our results; in a positive context (i.e., win at home), players show lower mental load values (i.e., all variables in this study).…”

Acute effect of complexity in basketball on cognitive capacity

“…The results showed the moderating effect of playing experience in attenuating the effect of increasing task difficulty on inhibitory control. Those players with more experience perceived fewer mental demands (Gutiérrez-Capote et al, 2023), translating into better results in their cognitive performance in the RES. Within the context of the optimal challenge framework, it is established that the functional difficulty of a task, in addition to being affected by experience and practice conditions, also depends on individual processing characteristics (Guadagnoli and Lee, 2004).…”

“…The methodology used in the present study has been previously employed and documented (Gutiérrez-Capote et al, 2023). In that study, it was reported that players experienced an increase in perceived mental load and a decrease in motor performance under conditions involving practice variability and imposed restrictions.…”

“…Therefore, we hypothesize that the mental load of the task, generated by its level of complexity, determines the positive or negative effect on subsequent cognitive performance. Previous research conducted by Gutiérrez-Capote et al (2023) found that by introducing difficulties through practice variability and using restrictions (motor, temporal, and spatial), players experienced an increased mental load and decreased motor performance. This type of practice succeeded in keeping participants at an optimal level of challenge (Guadagnoli and Lee, 2004).…”