The role of associative and dissociative attentional focus with internal and external dimensions on blood lactate and Borg Ratings of Perceived Exertion Scale

Since the role of associative and dissociative attentional focus in manipulating various constraints of the task and individual has not been clarified yet, the present study aimed to examine the role of associative and dissociative attentional focus with internal and external dimensions on blood lactate and Borg Ratings of Perceived Exertion Scale in beginners.

The method of the present study is semi-experimental in terms of practical purpose and based on the method of data collection. The statistical population of this study was all beginner females aged 18 to 30 years old at the Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran. Among them, twelve females were selected as the participants to run on the treadmill. For this purpose, the maximum speed (Vmax) of each participant was measured. The speed used in each of the test conditions (internal associative (attention to muscle), external associative (counting the running steps), internal dissociative (counting down the numbers), and external dissociative (attention to video)) was 70% of the maximum speed of each individual. During running, the questionnaire of Borg Ratings of Perceived Exertion Scale was used. After running for one minute in each condition, blood samples were taken to measure the participants’ blood lactate

The results of one-way ANOVA revealed that dissociative attentional focus with internal/external dimension resulted in lower blood lactate and lower Borg Ratings of Perceived Exertion Scale which caused higher running economy in beginners than associative attentional focus.

Based on the results of the present study, dissociative attention is the most economical method in running for beginners.