Noel BrickUlster University · School of Psychology
Noel Brick
PhD Sport and Exercise Psychology
About
49
Publications
30,213
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652
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Ulster University. Researcher on attentional focus and self-regulation during endurance activity; impact of abuse on mental health in sports officials.
Email: n.brick@ulster.ac.uk
Twitter: @noelbrickie
Additional affiliations
September 2014 - present
September 2014 - September 2017
August 2012 - June 2016
Position
- PhD
Description
- Research interest centres on cognitive strategies and attentional focus in endurance activity. Current research activity includes an investigation of the use of cognitive strategies in elite and non-elite endurance runners.
Education
September 2001 - June 2003
September 1993 - June 1997
Publications
Publications (49)
After more than 35 years of investigation research on attentional focus in endurance activity is still mired by a lack of consensus. Specific challenges relate to the conceptualization of association and dissociation, and discrepancies in methodology, research design, and data collection techniques. This review addresses previously unresolved issue...
Objective: This study sought to investigate the dynamics of attentional focus and cognitive control during endurance activity from a metacognitive perspective. The study also intended to examine the situational factors which may influence cognitive strategy use by elite endurance runners. Design: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were utilised...
Purpose:
To date there are no published studies directly comparing self-controlled and externally-controlled pace endurance tasks. However, previous research suggests pace control may impact on cognitive strategy use and effort perceptions. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects of manipulating perception of pace control on a...
Self-regulation reflects an individual’s efforts to bring behavior and thinking into line with often consciously desired goals. During endurance activity, self-regulation requires an athlete to balance their speed or power output appropriately to achieve an optimal level of performance. Considering that both behavior and thinking are core elements...
Purpose:
Models of self-paced endurance performance suggest that accurate knowledge of the exercise end-point influences pace-related decision-making. No studies have examined the effects of anticipated task difficulty during equidistant endurance activities. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of anticipated task...
Within this paper, we provide an expert opinion on five evidence-based psychological strategies that could help endurance participants overcome slowing down and stopping during performance: goal setting, motivational self-talk, relaxation, distraction, and pacing. We argue that these strategies are well-suited for delivery as brief-contact, educati...
Background
A minority of children in the United Kingdom meet the recommended physical activity guidelines. One initiative which has been introduced to try and increase the physical activity levels of school children is The Daily Mile™ (TDM). The aim of this review was to determine the effect of TDM on children’s physical activity levels, physical h...
Sport provides a significant role in the lives of athletes; however, both positive and negative mental health effects may occur from sporting experiences, including burnout and/or well-being. A cross-sectional survey was conducted including 685 athletes ( M age = 23.39, SD = 6.22, 71% = male), testing multiple, complementary, self-determination the...
Objectives:
Despite growing emphasis on the benefits of physical activity for promoting mental health, inclusion of muscle-strengthening (MS) (e.g., body-weight exercises, resistance machines) activities is limited. Notably, few studies collectively assess MS behavioural frequency, duration, and intensity. To address the gap, the current study exa...
Despite considerable growth in understanding of various aspects of sporting and exercise embodiment over the last decade, in-depth investigations of embodied affectual experiences in running remain limited. Furthermore, within the corpus of literature investigating pleasure and the hedonic dimension in running, much of this research has focused on...
Background
A minority of children in the United Kingdom meet the recommended physical activity guidelines. One initiative which has been introduced to try and increase the physical activity levels of school children is The Daily Mile™ (TDM). The aim of this review was to determine the effect of TDM on children’s physical activity levels, physical h...
Sports officials (e.g., referees, umpires, judges) can experience distress from a multitude of sources, including episodes of verbal and physical abuse from spectators, coaches, and athletes. Little is known about the impact of this abuse on mental health (MH) outcomes and intentions to quit, however. As such, the primary aims of this study were to...
Participation in sport can paradoxically be a source of psychological needs satisfaction and psychological needs frustration. Self-determination theory was applied to explain temporal relationships of athletes’ psychological needs satisfactions and psychological needs frustrations with burnout through a two-wave longitudinal study. Participants inc...
Background: Adolescents with intellectual disabilities are insufficiently physically active. Where interventions have been developed and delivered, these have had lim- ited effectiveness, and often lack a theoretical underpinning.
Aim: Through application of the COM-B model, our aim is to explore the factors influencing adolescent physical activi...
In the research concerning rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) in sport and exercise, irrational beliefs are proposed as a risk factor for health. Concurrent to this, researchers have also indicated that autonomous and controlled motivation, as proposed in organismic integration theory could, together with irrational beliefs, could determine i...
Objective
In this study, we aimed to understand the self-regulatory processes facilitating optimal experiences in running by integrating models of self-regulation with flow and clutch states.
Method
Using an event-focused approach, we interviewed 16 runners less than one day on average after recreational running activities (M = 22.17 hours later,...
In launching this Research Topic, our objective was to capture contemporary perspectives on the conceptualization and measurement of human-nature interactions, and advance future research perspectives. The ubiquitous nature of the challenge is exemplified by a diverse and expansive list of countries of our contributors, which ranges among 15 differ...
Self-regulation is described as the ability to successfully monitor and control one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions in accordance with the demands of a task. It involves change to bring one’s thinking and behaviour in line with often consciously desired standards and goals. Endurance athletes frequently attempt to control their thoughts and feeli...
Expert performance and feats of human endurance – both sporting and non-sporting
– typically require the ability to be aware of, and exert control over,
one’s own thoughts and actions in order to achieve a desired goal or outcome
(i.e., self-regulation; Forgas, Baumeister, & Tice, 2009).
“My business is to paint what I see, not what I know is there.”
J.M.W Turner
Lack of physical activity a major risk factor for global premature mortality and a large proportion of adults aged 18 years and over are insufficiently active worldwide. Therefore, there is an urgent need to tackle the problem of physical inactivity at a population leve...
We have previously demonstrated that reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT) is a genuinely time-efficient exercise strategy for improving cardiometabolic health. Here, we examined the affective and perceptual responses to REHIT. Eight young men and women (age 21 ± 1 y, BMI 24.9 ± 2.1 m/kg2, V̇O2max 39 ± 10 ml/kg/min) and 11 men w...
In this chapter, we explore the aforementioned paradigm shifts and how they offer
an ave nue for new research. We first elucidate what precisely “ mental imagery,” the
parent construct of motor imagery, is and explain the research milestones that have
elucidated our understanding of this complex topic. The construct of motor imagery
has become a th...
Purpose
Reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT) is a genuinely time-efficient exercise intervention that improves aerobic capacity and blood pressure in men with type 2 diabetes. However, the acute effects of REHIT on 24-h glycaemia have not been examined.
Methods
11 men with type 2 diabetes (mean ± SD: age, 52 ± 6 years; BMI, 29...
Purpose:
Recent studies have demonstrated that modifying the 'classic' 6x30-s 'all-out' sprint interval training (SIT) protocol by incorporating either shorter sprints (6x10-s or 15-s sprints) or fewer sprints (e.g. 2x20-s sprints; reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT)) does not attenuate the training-induced improvements in ma...
This study examined the metacognitive processes and attentional focus of recreational endurance runners. The emphasis was on understanding the metacognitive processes important to acquire, develop, and refine cognitive strategies in novice endurance exercise participants. The potential impact of metacognitive processes and cognitive strategies on l...
Objective: The present study examined the attentional focus and metacognitive processes of recreational endurance runners. The emphasis was on understanding how attentional strategies are acquired, developed, and refined with continued participation in endurance activity. The impact of cognitive strategies on longer-term activity adherence was also...
Objectives Previous research has supported the beneficial effects of relaxation training on running economy. However, no studies have compared the effects of brief contact instructions to alter facial expression or to relax on running economy or running performance. The primary aim of this study was to determine the effect of such attentional instr...
This paper considers the environmental impact on well-being and performance in elite athletes during Olympic competition. The benefits of exercising in natural environments are recognised, but less is known about the effects on performance and health in elite athletes. Although some Olympic events take place in natural environments, the majority oc...
Knowledge of demands of different sports is important during the development of training programmes. The aim of the present study was to examine the fitness characteristics of players at an elite level in soccer, rugby union, Gaelic football and hurling. The comparison of the activities is important in Ireland as there are ‘dual code’ players who c...
Questions
Question (1)
There are a number of ways of monitoring exercise training intensity. Subjective measures include the Session Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) method developed by Foster et al. (1995) whereby participants indicate a global session RPE 30 minutes after completion of an exercise bout. But I wanted to know if this is the best method to quantify global RPE for interval training? Are there alternative, reliable measures (subjective or objective) of global Session RPE suitable for interval training?
