Past Running Experience as a Mediator of the Attentional Focus of Male and Female Recreational Runners

In 1988 research under our controlled laboratory conditions suggested that, when subjects are instructed to focus on bodily cues while running on a treadmill, females perceive the activity to be more strenuous than do males. It was reasoned that this difference might be due to differences in either self-monitoring style or past exercise experience of males and females. The purpose of the present study was to survey recreational runners to ascertain the types of cues/thoughts to which they attended during exercise. 115 male and 72 female undergraduate and graduate students at a major university completed an attentional focus questionnaire after a routine jogging session. Demographic information was also obtained regarding each subject's experience with running activities (e.g., frequency, intensity, past history, etc.). Analysis suggested that attentional focus during running was related more to running experience than to sex differences in self-monitoring style. Inexperienced subjects focused attention more on bodily stimuli associated with the activity while experienced subjects focused more on cues/thoughts unrelated to running (e.g., music, surrounding scenery, etc.). It was concluded that experienced recreational runners are more adept at diverting attention away from unpleasant bodily cues associated with exercise than are inexperienced runners.