Using deception to observe pacing strategies and measures of fatigue between competitive and cooperative scenarios

It has recently been shown and repeated that deceiving subjects into believing that they are competing against their own best performance in a prior 4-km cycling time trial elicited by researchers in labs has improved performance in subsequent trials of the same distance. While competing against this deception condition, subjects are able to maintain an average power output that is 2% higher than their baseline performance. This increase has been explained as a non-oxygen requiring energy contribution during the conclusion of the time trial. In elite competitive events of endurance, a 2% increase in performance is a significant difference. For example, the difference between 1st and 2nd place in the 4-km team pursuit last Olympic games was just 0.322 seconds, made more impressive by the fact that 1st place broke the world record in that event that year. Though these findings were discovered in the lab with the presence of an avatar depicted as a competitor, to date, no study has indicated if a cooperative scenario (such as team pursuit in cycling) would elicit the same performance increases or indicate a different perception of fatigue compared to competition. Thus, this study will analyze the influence of competition and cooperation on trained, competitive cyclists, as well as observe the physiological effects of fatigue that these conditions may impose on a four-kilometer time trial under conditions of deception.

This study takes place in Bloomington, IN.

Participants will not be paid for their participation.