Honours Projects in 2011

Research Project

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Do learning styles influence the rate of learning for motor skills?
Different people have been shown to learn best using different learning styles (e.g. visual, auditory, written word) in classroom settings. These learning styles are now being adapted to assist coaches and athletes in the coaching environment for more effective skill development. However the effectiveness of learning styles in the sports environment is yet to be tested scientifically. This project will seek to test whether learning styles influence skill acquisition for motor skills in elite (eg AFL) and sub elite (eg VFL, under 18s) groups.  
 

     Dr Clare MacMahon

What is the best way to improve Repeated Sprint Ability (RSA)?
Short-duration sprints, interspersed with brief recoveries, are common during most team sports. The ability to recover and to reproduce performance in subsequent sprints has been termed repeated-sprint ability (RSA). RSA is therefore an important fitness requirement of nearly ALL team-sport athletes and it is important to better understand training strategies that can improve this fitness component. A number of projects are available investigating both training and nutritional strategies to improve repeated sprint ability. These projects would suit students interested in understanding how to improve team sport performance.
 

     Prof David Bishop (ISEAL)

www.vu.edu.au/iseal

What is the best way to improve muscle buffer capacity?
A high muscle buffer capacity is essential to “buffer” or remove the lactic acid that is produced during high-intensity exercise and to help prevent fatigue. Despite the importance of a good muscle buffer capacity for most sports, we don’t really know the best way to train it. A number of projects are available investigating both training and nutritional strategies to improve muscle buffer capacity. These projects would suit students who have an interest in training physiology.
 

     Prof David Bishop (ISEAL)

www.vu.edu.au/iseal

What causes us to stop exercising (i.e., “fatigue) during high-intensity exercise?
Fatigue is the unavoidable consequence of high-intensity exercise. However, despite decades of research the exact cause fatigue remains a mystery. A number of projects are available investigating the different possible causes of fatigue. These projects would suit students who have an interest in muscle physiology and fatigue.
 

     Prof David Bishop (ISEAL)

www.vu.edu.au/iseal

What is the best way to improve endurance performance?
Some coaches will tell you that interval training is the best, some will tell you that long, slow distance training is best. Who is right or is it better to do a combination of the two? A number of projects are available comparing the effects of different types of training on endurance performance. These projects would suit students who have an interest in exercise physiology and endurance performance.
 

     Prof David Bishop (ISEAL)

www.vu.edu.au/iseal

Type D personality and drive for muscularity in male body builders vs active males who do not weight train more than once a week (questionnaire based, quantitative).

     Dr Erika Borkoles

Exploration of the lived experience of males and females with a high BMI (35 and above). A qualitative, IPA study.

     Dr Erika Borkoles

Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia websites: The promotion of eating disorders as a  lifestyle choice?
Over the past 10 years, the internet has seen a proliferation of websites, web forums and social network services (e.g., Facebook) dedicated to the Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia movements. Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia refer to the promotion of anorexia and bulimia as lifestyle choices rather than eating disorders. Followers of Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia normalize their conditions, defending them not as an illness but as an accomplishment of self control and an essential part of their identities. This project will examine the messages that Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia groups send to their website readers and the ways in which these messages are conveyed.
 

     Dr Harriet Speed

How do different exercise intensities affect daily glucose control and metabolism?
Australia and the world’s population are growing ever fatter and as a consequence suffering from increases incidence of  type 2 diabetes in pandemic proportions.  Much of the reason for this is due to loss of insulin sensitivity and metabolic flexibility due to over eating and lack of physical activity.  It is well established that physical activity and therefore structured exercise programmes both prevent and treat obesity and type 2 diabetes.  There is however controversy on what is the exercise to prescribe for health.  It is therefore important to establish how very high, high, moderate and low intensity exercise impacts both daily glucose control and metabolism.  This project will start to answer some of these questions using continuous real time glucose monitoring and resting metabolic rate determination.
 

     Dr Nigel Stepto

Does acute exercise and antioxidant supplementation impact skeletal muscle mitochondrial function?
It is well known that the mitochondria are the major suppliers of energy through the production of ATP via the consumption of oxygen.  Mitochondria have also been linked to excessive ROS production especially in diabetes and obesity.  It is therefore important to understand the effects of acute exercise and the use of anti-oxidants on mitochondrial function to help us understand the role mitochondria in the pathophysiology of many lifestyle diseases like obesity and   type 2 diabetes.  In this project we will investigate the effects of exercise or NAC supplementation on muscle mitochondrial respiration as determined by the School's new High Resolution Mitochondrial Respirometer (one of only 4 in Australia).
 

Women Playing Australian Rules Football: Historical Case Studies
Recent celebrations to mark the sesquicentenary of Australian Rules football have been overshadowed by significant academic and public debates concerning the birth of the code. Yet the origins and early development of the women’s game remain shrouded in mystery, despite the fact that women have (sporadically) played the sport for almost 100 years. Part of the problem is historiographical. Women’s sport in general has been marginalized and female football in particular has attracted only limited attention. This project involves students investigating the development of the women’s game via selected historical case studies based on such sources as rare archival photographs, newspapers and memorabilia, and genealogical profiles of the women who played in these matches.
 

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Strategies to enhance muscular adaptations to strength training
Several projects are available that will investigate the effect of various commonly performed post-exercise recovery strategies on muscular adaptations to strength training. These projects would suit students with an interest in exercise physiology and/or muscle physiology.
 

9919 9452

Is altitude training beneficial for team-sport players?
The most popular adaptation to exposure to altitude is an increase in red blood cells, which is often associated with an increase in endurance performance. Interestingly, there has been a series of observations that altitude training can also promote an increased anaerobic fitness. Therefore, it is possible that this form of training also benefits repeat-sprint performance, which is an essential fitness component of many team sports. Opportunities for 2 students exist to explore whether AFL, soccer and netball players could benefit from training 6 weeks in a hypoxic chamber. This would suit students interested in applied sport science.
 

9919 9451

Females and exercise: understanding a complex integrative physiology
Knowledge of human physiology is largely based on male subjects. In recent decades, however, there has been an increased involvement of females in physical training programs and amateur and professional sport, where high-intensity, exhaustive exercise is commonly performed. This project offers several opportunities to investigate the unique physiological responses to exercise and fatigue characteristics of female athletes, as compared with males. Students with an interest in exercise physiology and fatigue would be best suited.
 

Religion and coping with stress in sport and the pursuit of goals
Self-regulation is critical for success in life. Religious individuals appear to be more in control of themselves and are better at pursuing long-term goals that are important to them. These findings might explain to some extent why religious individuals have lower rates of substance abuse, better school achievement, less delinquency, better health behaviours, less depression and longer lives.
If religious beliefs or behaviours encourage individuals to exercise self-control they might well be more effective in regulating emotions and behaviours and be able to pursue goals. The aim of the present study would be to investigate qualitatively the role religion plays in dealing with stress in athletes and how religion might help in the pursuit of athletic goals. The research will adopt interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) to investigate this issue.
 

Erika.Borkoles@vu.edu.au

Successful ageing
Extreme variability exists with respect to the effects of ageing.  Many factors, including genetics, cumulative damage, lifestyle and living environment, contribute to the age-related decline in independent daily living skills, but the declines commence at different ages for people, with very different rates of decline occurring. Although genetic factors contribute as much as 25% to the ageing process, the way we live our life (i.e., lifestyle factors) has a major influence on the ‘healthy’ ageing process.  People who show the lowest rates of decline (‘successful agers’) have been shown to maintain high levels of physical and cognitive status, absence of disabilities, arthritis and diabetes, engagement in physical,  leisure and everyday activities, as well as high levels of self-reported life satisfaction and few depressive symptoms. The main aim of the present research project would be to interview ‘successful agers’ to explore factors in their life history which might have contributed to their current well-being.
 

Erika.Borkoles@vu.edu.au

The role of mental toughness in stress and coping in sport
The concept of mental toughness (MT) in sport has been around for some time and many coaches and athletes see MT as being a significant factor influencing performance in sport. The aim of the present study would be to investigate how individuals high in MT in comparison to individuals low in MT deal with a laboratory stressor. In particular, in the first stage of the research a number of individuals will be asked to complete the MTQ48 to assess their level of MT. Following this, 8 to 10 individuals scoring relatively low and 8 to 10 individuals scoring relatively high will asked to engage in a laboratory task in which they will be stressed. The research will assess how the individuals with different levels of MT might appraise the stressful encounter and how they cope with the situation. In addition, physiological measures will be taken (Heart rate).
 

Recreation planning and programming
Most municipalities in Victoria recognise the need to be strategic about the delivery of their sport and recreation services. Unfortunately, there is very little rigorous research about approaches used by municipal government and other sport and recreation organisations (such as state sport organisations) to plan and deliver their services. Opportunities exist for up to three students to undertake research projects that will explore recreation planning and programming issues in Victoria.
 

Player Regulation in Professional Sport 
While the officials who run professional sport leagues and competitions  argue that player regulation is essential for the long term viability of leagues, there is little data on what other stakeholders think and understand.  This project will secure comments from players, their agents, journalists, and sponsors on this issue, and in doing so, aim to reveal not only the perceived benefits, but also the economic and social costs that can come with tight controls over players. The data will be subsequently used to design alternative models for structuring and managing sport leagues.
 

Drug Use in Community Sport   
Most of the research into drug use in sport has focused on elite players and athletes.  These studies had provided illuminating results, but they say virtually nothing about drug use in community sport. Apart from studies on alcohol use, there is a scarcity of research on the broader issues of illicit drug use, performance enhancing drug use, and prescription drug use at the local level. This study will examine a cross section of sport clubs and associations in Melbourne with a view to better understanding the ways in which drugs - in their various forms - are perceived and used in community sport. 
 

Gyms as Sites for Working the Body
Over the last ten years in Australia there has been a rapid growth in people visiting gyms in order to improve their fitness, well being, and physical appearance.  Many surveys have been undertaken which ask gym users to rate the services provided, the equipment available for use, and the standard of instruction. However, there is far less research that examines the ways in which gym-users view their experiences, and in particular the relative importance they attach to (1)becoming fitter,(2)building a better looking body, (3)developing a network of like minded friends, (4)securing a strong sense of self, (5) building emotional resiliance,(6) constructing a more appealing body shape, (7) slowing down the ageing process, 8) reclaiming their idealised adolescent body, (9)putting on muscle, (10)meeting a narcissistic need for self-admiration, or (11)just hanging out and filling in time. This research will address these issues by doing an in-depth study of gym users, and, in doing so, find out whether or not gym use actually delivers these anticipated benefits.
 

Role of NO and ROS in the regulation of glucose uptake during exercise.
It is important to better understand the regulation of skeletal muscle glucose uptake during exercise since people with type 2 diabetes have problems with their insulin-stimulated glucose uptake but their glucose uptake during exercise is normal. We have evidence that the neuronal form of nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), which is expressed within skeletal muscle fibres, plays a major role in glucose uptake during exercise. It is important that we now examine the factors downstream of nNOS. We have evidence that interactions between NO and reactive oxygen species (ROS) may be involved but further studies are required.  These studies will involve contraction of muscle cells and also contraction of isolated mouse muscles.
 

Do the actions of other bias our motor responses?
In high speed sports individuals often rely on anticipation to cope with the intense time pressures faced in competition. There is evidence to suggest that the actions of another individual will bias responding in a particular direction or with a particular limb. This priming effect exists even when individuals are required to respond to stimuli irrelevant to the action they are viewing. The aim of this project is determine whether these priming effects exists when making a reactive response to the actions of another by observing how response time changes when viewing actions unrelated to the response itself.
 

How does time pressure affect decision-making?
Traditional video-based decision making tests do not typically incorporate the time pressure athletes face during real-world performance. This project is designed to determine how decision making is affected when temporal restrictions are introduced to a traditional experimental set-up.
 

Eye movements during a problem-solving task
Eye movements provide insight into the allocation of attention and processing requirements of the task at hand. The aim of this project is to determine how eye movements evolve as an individual attempts to solve a simple spatial puzzle – is there an eye movement correlate to the ‘Ah ha’ moment?
 

Can a novel putting aide be used to improve putting accuracy and Quiet Eye?
The final fixation, or quiet eye, prior to initiating the backswing has been shown to be an important factor in putting success. The aim of this study is to determine whether a novel training apparatus can be used to improve novice golfers quiet eye duration and putting accuracy during a short-term intervention.
 

Sport and social inclusion/community development
Sport has been identified by the Federal government as a key site for social inclusion and community development. However research suggests that many models of sport are exclusive rather than inclusive. Some of the factors influencing inclusion are ethnicity, gender and sexuality, age, socio-economics, and body shape. Opportunities exist for students to conduct qualitative research projects engaging with these issues and various sport and government organisations
 

Understanding Japanese sport and society
Sport in Japan is strongly connected with the education system and the delivery of the so called ‘secondary curriculum’. Research projects in this area would be suited to students who have an interest in Japanese sport and culture, who have competed in sport in Japan, or a looking to engage with the growing sport and physical fitness market in Japan. Research for these projects will be based in Australia and at our partner university, Biwako Seikei Sports College in Japan. There may be an opportunity to receive some funding toward the Japanese component of the project.
 

Sport culture and drinking culture
The sale of alcohol at local sports clubs is often a major source of revenue for those clubs. At the same time there are increasing programmes focusing on the responsible service of alcohol and the negative effects of binge drinking. This project will utilise field research methods to engage with various sports and players to understand attitudes toward alcohol consumption in the context of sport. It will also involve an investigation of the financial relationship the sale of alcohol may have on the club’s ability to successfully operate.