When fatigue promotes striving: Confirmation that success importance moderates resource depletion influence on effort-related cardiovascular response

Undergraduate volunteers performed an easy (fatigue low) or difficult (fatigue high) counting task and then were presented a difficult scanning task with instructions that the task was or was not diagnostic of an important ability (low versus high ego-involvement, respectively). As expected, systolic blood pressure responses in the second work period were positively proportional to fatigue where ego-involvement (and, thus, success importance) was high, but not where ego-involvement (and, thus, importance) was low. The pressure findings provide fresh support for the suggestion of a recent fatigue analysis that importance should moderate fatigue influence on effort-related CV responses to a performance challenge so long as fatigued performers view success as possible, conceptually replicating and extending effects from a previous fatigue experiment.

► More and less depleted participants were presented a scanning task that purportedly was or was not diagnostic of an important ability.
► Systolic blood pressure responses were proportional to fatigue where diagnosticity was high, but not where it was low.
► Findings confirm the suggestion that success importance should sometimes moderate fatigue influence on CV responses to a performance challenge.