Assessing Static Muscular Endurance
With a device called hot rings we measure the duration of static muscular endurance and the quality of this performance. In the hot rings task, participants hold two metal bars which are connected at the front by two “hot” rings. They are called “hot”, because they are not supposed to touch each other during the experiment. Errors (i.e., when the rings touch) are recorded with very high sampling frequency (20Hz). Participants are required to hold the bars in a horizontal position for as long as possible (in the picture you see the hot rings in combination with an fNIRS measurement). A ceiling detector unplugs as soon as the participants’ arms drop below the 90° position and stops the data collection. We use the hot rings to investigate for example self-control performance and the effectiveness of implementation intentions (read here).