Nideffer's theory of attention and interpersonal style is based upon Easterbrook's 1959 postulates that psychological stress has predictable and sequential effects on attention, i.e., loss of attentional flexibility, attentional narrowing, and interiorization. These effects have not yet been demonstrated within a context for physical activity using exercise as the stressor. In the present study, subjects were required to react to a verbal five-choice reaction-time task while pedalling to exhaustion upon a bicycle. It was hypothesized that choice RTs and the number of omitted responses would increase predictably with the addition of the progressive exercise. There were distortions in reactions to progressive exercise. Initially, there was facilitation of performance by exercise for the conditions of rest, and exercise-induced heart rates of 115 beats per minute (bpm) with no differential effects across the attentional field. Between 115 and 145 bpm, there were universal decrements in performance, with differential and progressive effects of exercise on performance beyond 145 bpm in the peripheral fields. At 165 and 180 bpm, peripheral reactions became progressively slower with concomitant increases in the accuracy of signal detection. Both the progressive differential decrease in choice RT to the peripheral stimuli as well as the increase in errors with progressive exercise tended to support the relationship between attention and performance that Easterbrook proposed, but within an exercise context.
The Relationship Between Interpersonal Cognitive Distortions and Attribution Styles Among Divorce Applicant Couples and its Impact on Sexual Satisfaction
