Ego depletion and attention regulation under pressure: Is a temporary loss of self-control strength indeed related to impaired attention regulation?

Englert, Chris; Zwemmer, Kris; Bertrams, Alex; Oudejans, Raôul R.D. (2015). Ego depletion and attention regulation under pressure: Is a temporary loss of self-control strength indeed related to impaired attention regulation? Journal of sport & exercise psychology, 37(2), pp. 127-137. Human Kinetics Publishers 10.1123/jsep.2014-0219

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In the current study we investigated whether ego depletion negatively affects attention regulation under pressure in sports by assessing participants' dart throwing performance and accompanying gaze behavior. According to the strength model of self-control, the most important aspect of self-control is attention regulation. Because higher levels of state anxiety are associated with impaired attention regulation, we chose a mixed design with ego depletion (yes vs. no) as between-subjects and anxiety level (high vs. low) as within-subjects factor. Participants performed a perceptual-motor task requiring selective attention, namely, dart throwing. In line with our expectations, depleted participants in the high-anxiety condition performed worse and displayed a shorter final fixation on bull's eye, demonstrating that when one's self-control strength is depleted, attention regulation under pressure cannot be maintained. This is the first study that directly supports the general assumption that ego depletion is a major factor in influencing attention regulation under pressure.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Education > Educational Psychology 07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Education
UniBE Contributor:	Englert, Christoph, Bertrams, Alexander Gregor
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 370 Education
ISSN:	0895-2779
Publisher:	Human Kinetics Publishers
Language:	English
Submitter:	Christoph Englert
Date Deposited:	08 May 2015 14:15
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:46
Publisher DOI:	10.1123/jsep.2014-0219
PubMed ID:	25996104
Uncontrolled Keywords:	anxiety, dart throwing, gaze behavior, perceptual-motor control, self-regulation, sport
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/68105