Acute Cardiovascular Exercise Counteracts the Effect of Ego-Depletion on Attention: How Ego-Depletion Increases Boredom and Compromises Directed Attention

Prior research implicates ego-depletion in directed-attention failure, but provides few explanations for the effect. I theorize that ego-depletion weakens ones ability to maintain cognitive-arousal in non-stimulating situations, which increases proneness to boredom. In one study, 90 participants first either underwent ego-depletion (white-bear thought-suppression) or a non-depleting control activity (solved arithmetic problems). They then had their arousal manipulated by either performing an arousal-bolstering physical exercise or waited sitting for an equivalent amount of time in a quite room to facilitate low arousal. All participants then completed the continuous performance task (CPT) as a measure of directed-attention. Attention was measured in terms of accuracy (number of errors) on the CPT. Results revealed a moderated-mediation such that without an arousal-inducing exercise, ego-depleted participants experienced greater boredom and performed worse on the CPT. However, with an arousal-inducing exercise, the effect of ego-depletion on CPT performance disappeared and the effect on boredom was reversed.