Gardner, B, Flint, S, Rebar, AL et al. (4 more authors) (2019) Is sitting invisible? Exploring how people mentally represent sitting. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16 (1). 85. ISSN 1479-5868
Abstract
Background
Growing evidence suggests that prolonged uninterrupted sitting can be detrimental to health. Much sedentary behaviour research is reliant on self-reports of sitting time, and sitting-reduction interventions often focus on reducing motivation to sit. These approaches assume that people are consciously aware of their sitting time. Drawing on Action Identification Theory, this paper argues that people rarely identify the act of sitting as ‘sitting’ per se, and instead view it as an incidental component of more meaningful and purposeful typically-seated activities.
Methods
Studies 1 and 2 explored whether people mentioned sitting in written descriptions of actions. Studies 3–5 compared preferences for labelling a typically desk-based activity as ‘sitting’ versus alternative action identities. Studies 6 and 7 used card-sort tasks to indirectly assess the prioritisation of ‘sitting’ relative to other action descriptions when identifying similar actions.
Results
Participants rarely spontaneously mentioned sitting when describing actions (Studies 1–2), and when assigning action labels to a seated activity, tended to offer descriptions based on higher-order goals and consequences of action, rather than sitting or other procedural elements (Studies 3–5). Participants primarily identified similarities in actions based not on sitting, but on activities performed while seated (e.g. reading; Studies 6–7).
Conclusion
‘Sitting’ is a less accessible cognitive representation of seated activities than are representations based on the purpose and implications of seated action. Findings suggest that self-report measures should focus on time spent in seated activities, rather than attempting to measure sitting time via direct recall. From an intervention perspective, findings speak to the importance of targeting behaviours that entail sitting, and of raising awareness of sitting as a potential precursor to attempting to reduce sitting time.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s). 2019. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
Keywords: | Sedentary behaviour; Sitting; Standing; Cognition; Action identification; Psychology; Office workers; Experimental |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Feb 2020 16:58 |
Last Modified: | 17 Feb 2020 16:58 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMC |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/s12966-019-0851-0 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:157240 |