Attentional Association versus Attentional Dissociation and Post-Exercise Affect and Enjoyment

Abstract

Affect and enjoyment have been found in recent studies to be significantly related to exercise participation. However, little is known about methods that can be used to improve these experiences. PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of attentional association (ventilation and heart rate biofeedback; BF), attentional dissociation (self-selected music videos; MTV), and a control condition (sensory attenuation; CON) on enjoyment and ratings of pleasure-displeasure following a graded cycle ergometer test to fatigue. METHODS: Twenty-nine participants (16 M; 22.2±3.2 yrs) completed all conditions in randomized order. Enjoyment (Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale; Kendzierski & DiCarlo, 1991) was measured after a 5-min cool-down. Pleasure-displeasure (Feeling Scale; Hardy & Rejeski, 1989) was assessed 0, 10, 20, and 30 min post-exercise. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the three conditions in heart rate, oxygen consumption, or test duration. However, compared to the CON (92.07±15.93) and BF (90.25±20.15) conditions, participants reported more enjoyment following the MTV condition (99.71±13.01, F(2, 54) = 5.136, p =.009). A significant condition by time interaction was revealed for ratings of pleasure (F(4.508, 126.229) = 4.293, p =.002) and these ratings were higher after MTV immediately post-exercise (0.24±2.34 vs. -0.55±2.56, p < 0.05) and after a 5-min cool-down (2.41±1.68 vs. 1.52±1.94, p < 0.05) compared to CON and 10 min post-exercise (3.03±1.24 vs. 2.45±1.30, p < 0.05) compared to BF. CONCLUSIONS: An attentional dissociation intervention using self-selected music videos results in significantly more positive experiences following a standardized exercise stimulus. These findings could have implications for exercise adherence as post-exercise affective responses and enjoyment may influence future exercise participation.