University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+ University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2018 Understanding psychological processes and their effect on decision making performance in elite endurance cyclists David J. Spindler University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1 University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. 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Recommended Citation Spindler, David J., Understanding psychological processes and their effect on decision making performance in elite endurance cyclists, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, 2018. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1/536 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES AND THEIR EFFECT ON DECISION MAKING PERFORMANCE IN ELITE ENDURANCE CYCLISTS A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Wollongong by David J. Spindler B.Psyc.Sci. (Hons) School of Psychology Faculty of Social Sciences 2018 This research has been conducted with the support of the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship Certification I, David J. Spindler, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. David J. Spindler 23/09/2018 i Acknowledgements Firstly, thank you to my supervisors Dr. Mark Allen, Dr. Stewart Vella & Dr. Christian Swann. Your unwavering support, expertise and distinctive personality traits, meshed exceptionally, into EXACTLY what I needed. I am indebted to you as a team but more importantly as individuals. I wasn’t easy to supervise, but you nailed it. To Bradley McGee, Ben Kersten, Kevin Poulton, & our team of athletes who rode for the New South Wales Institute of Sport - Endurance Cycling. Thank you for your patience, empathy, encouragement and support. We created something special & my time working here has been the best of my professional career. I am grateful to call you friends. To Nathan Haas, Joe Lewis, Rohan Dennis, Melissa Hoskins, Richie Porte, Mark Cavendish, Peter Kennaugh, Sam Jenner, Miles Scotson, Ash Ankudinoff, Josh Carlson, Joel Walsh & Chris Sutton, thanks for being my sounding boards for ideas contained within this PhD. You’re the OG’s, and without you this Ph.D. would not exist. To every athlete who completed any part of my research, I thank you. I am privileged to research your chosen profession. To Carrol & John Spindler, this is as much for you, as it is me. You were there for me when life was not something I wanted to continue, I am eternally grateful. Along these same lines, I also wish to thank Adam Metcalf & the entire Metcalf family. Lastly, but most importantly, to Michelle, Kayin & Luca – my everything. To Michelle, I cannot put into words just what it means to me that we found each other. You single-handedly changed the way I view the world. Ek hiet jou lief moi pragtige meisie. To Kayin & Luca, our two exquisite little versions of us, our miracle babies, you make my heart explode. The three of you make my world a better place and I can’t wait to see what our future holds. WE DID IT!!! ii Abstract Success in elite endurance cycling requires a combination of physiological and psychological attributes. However, compared to physiological processes, much less is known about the psychological processes that govern performance at this level. Over eight chapters, results from five investigations are presented that explore the psychology of elite endurance cycling. Following a detailed introduction to the thesis (Chapter 1), the first investigation aimed to systematically review all empirical research on the psychology of elite cycling (Chapter 2). Using established systematic review procedures (PRISMA) and an established definition of eliteness, the systematic review found that only 14 studies have ever been published on the psychology of elite cycling. Moreover, the review showed that this body of research was governed by non-standardisation of measures, a lack of follow-up data, small sample sizes, and overall poor research quality. Essentially, there was little in the published literature to build upon meaning that it was necessary to conduct further research to help identify the psychological processes important for elite cycling (Chapter 3). Event-focused semi-structured interviews with 10 world-class endurance cyclists revealed 30 psychological processes (grouped into eight categories) relevant to success in elite endurance cycling. In particular, emotion and decision making were identified by cyclists as key to success in their sport. Based on findings from the qualitative investigation, it was decided to target the remaining studies toward understanding decision making processes. After a further review of relevant literature (Chapter 4), the first experiment (Chapter 5) tested whether manipulating positive and negative emotion using motivational general-arousal imagery would affect elite cyclists’ decision making performance under physiological duress. Physiological duress was induced to mimic performance-relevant conditions and decision-making was measured using iii the colour-word-match Stroop. In a sample of 54 elite cyclists, the motivational-general arousal imagery manipulation was successful in inducing the desired emotional state (positive or negative) but this did not affect decision making performance under physiological duress. Therefore, the decision was made to switch focus from emotion manipulation to implicit belief manipulation (Chapter 6). The second experiment (Chapter 6) tested whether manipulating implicit beliefs about decision making ability would affect elite cyclists’ decision making performance, and the potential moderating role of glucose ingestion. In total, 76 elite-level cyclists were assigned to one of four conditions: an induced limited or non-limited implicit belief about decision making ability, and ingestion or non-ingestion of a glucose supplement. The same outcome measure and induced physiological duress used in the previous experiment were adopted here. Results showed that when glucose was not ingested, a limited belief was associated with a decrease in decision making performance, whereas a non-limited belief was associated with an increase in decision making performance. When glucose was ingested, decision making performance increased regardless of implicit beliefs. Because glucose ingestion tends to overpower implicit beliefs (Chapter 6) it was decided to explore the role of glucose in more detail in the final experiment (Chapter 7). This experiment was a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial that tested the effect of glucose ingestion on decision making performance. As with the previous two experiments, this experiment used the same outcome measure and induced physiological duress. In total, 88 elite cyclists were assigned to one of three conditions: water, glucose or placebo. Results showed that the manipulation of placebo as a glucose supplement was successful. For main findings, increases in decision making performance were observed in placebo and glucose conditions, but a decrease in decision making performance was observed in the water iv condition. Moreover, the experiment showed that 97.2% of the benefits of glucose (over water) could be attributed to a placebo effect. Chapter 8 provides a detailed reflection on the program of research. Overall, the five studies presented in this thesis provide important new information on the processes governing decision making performance in elite cyclists. Strengths include adequate statistical power to detect medium effects in all experiments, randomisation, multiple manipulation checks in all experiments, the elite nature of the samples, adoption of a single dependent variable within experiments (no opportunity for p-hacking), and high ecological validity of the setting (testing under physiological duress). Limitations include the unavailability of a validated cycling-