Attention focus during physical effort: The mediating role of task intensity

Objectives: Tenenbaum's (2001) [A social-cognitive perspective of perceived exertion and exertion tolerance. In R. N. Singer, H. Hausenblas, & C. Janelle (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (pp. 810-820). New York, NY:Wiley] exercise intensity-attention linkage model was used to design and carry out two studies to examine individuals' attentional strategies during engagement in two physically demanding tasks, and the mediating effect of task intensity on attention focus. Design: An experimental design was employed where thought classifications (associative vs. dissociative) during three stages of a handgrip task (study 1) and during 50%, 70%, and 90% VO₂ max effort in a cycling task (study 2) were subjected to non-parametric Chi-square analysis. Methods: Male and female participants were exposed to the increasing sensation of physical effort via two fatiguing tasks: an isometric handgrip task (n=35), and a stationary cycling task (n=13). During each task participants were instructed to vocally express their current thoughts-in sentences, phrases or words-continuously throughout the testing procedure. Participant's self-reported thoughts were recorded during the tasks, and later classified to reveal patterns of associative and dissociative attention focus. Results: Attention focus was predominantly associative when task intensity was high. These findings are consistent with Tenenbaum's (2001) [A social-cognitive perspective of perceived exertion and exertion tolerance. In R. N. Singer, H. Hausenblas, & C. Janelle (Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (pp. 810-820). New York, NY:Wiley] model postulating the relationship between exercise intensity and attention allocation, which maintains that above a given effort threshold physiological cues dominate attention focus. Conclusions: During conditions of high workload and prolonged duration, attention is focused on overwhelming physiological sensations, which dominate focal awareness. At this point an associative attention focus is almost unavoidable.