The Effect Of Diaphragmatic Breathing On Selective Attentional Control Under Pressure

Attentional control refers to the ability to overcome current difficulties through efforts,focus on relevant information all the time,and avoid distracting interference of irrelevant information.In competitive competition,it is very important for events and athletes to control attention under pressure.Attentional control theory(ACT)proposes that pressure may damage attentional control performance,however,it doesn’t point out how to reduce the effects.The diaphragmatic breathing provides a way to improve the performance of attentional control under pressure.This study uses virtual reality(VR)technology,which characterized by immersion and interaction effects,to construct a general pressure situation combined with sports scenes.VR can not only maximize internal and ecological validity,but also ensure the generalization of experimental results under strict control.Meanwhile,the way of diaphragmatic breathing can find a simple and easy way to improve the performance under pressure,and improve the adaptability of athletes in complex and changeable competitions.This study was based on the Stroop task of selective attentional control,two pre experiments and two formal experiments were conducted to explore the effects of short-term and long-term diaphragmatic breathing on selective attentional control.Experiment 1 aimed to examine the effect of short-term diaphragmatic breathing practice on selective attentional control under pressure.We invited 168 participants to join in a 2*2 between-group experiment design.Independent variable consisted of pressure situation(low,high)and breathing practice(diaphragmatic breathing,normal breathing).Dependent variable consisted of Stroop interference effect and the changes of HRV physiological indexes.The experiment used VR to induce pressure situation and completed Stroop task at the same time.The results showed that breathing practice could improve selective attentional control performance.However,no significant improvement was found in the high pressure situation.Experiment 2 aimed to examine the effect of long-term diaphragmatic breathing training on selective attentional control under high pressure.We invited 70 participants to join in a 2*3 mixed-group experiment design.Independent variable consisted of breathing training(diaphragmatic breathing,control)and measure time(pre-test,middle-test,post-test).Dependent variable consisted of Stroop interference effect and the changes of HRV physiological indexes.Participants were randomly assigned to diaphragmatic breathing group and control group.The diaphragmatic breathing group received breathing training for 8 weeks,twice a week and 20 minutes each time,while the control group did not receive any intervention.The results showed that compared with the breathing practice in experiment 1,the effect size of breathing training on selective attentional control was greater.This result suggested that the effect of improving attentional control by long-term diaphragmatic breathing training was more obvious and stable.All in all,diaphragmatic breathing can improve the performance of selective attentional control whether in low pressure situation or high pressure situation.Athletes can improve their attentional control ability through diaphragmatic breathing.The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on selective attentional control has some repeatability.The intervention effect of long-term diaphragmatic breathing training is better than short-term diaphragmatic breathing practice.Maybe diaphragmatic breathing can be used as an alternative way to adjust athletes’ daily physical and mental states.