Investigating Psychological Moderators of the Effect of a Slow-Paced Breathing Intervention on Decision-Making Performance

Decision-making is a ubiquitous cognitive process that individuals engage in constantly—some decisions are inconsequential while others can have drastic implications. Identifying ways to improve decision-making, therefore, has potential to have lasting positive effects. One potential approach is slow-paced breathing interventions. While such interventions have shown promise for improving certain aspects of cognition, such as working memory, few studies have examined the effect of slow-paced breathing on decision-making performance. The current study sought to examine the effect of a brief slow-paced breathing intervention on performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a reward-based decision-making task. Potential moderating variables such as stress, worry, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were also explored. Participants (n=216) were undergraduates recruited through fliers and an online subject pool. Participants were randomized into either an experimental slow-paced breathing intervention group or a mind wandering control group. Participants completed a preliminary demographics and trait measures survey, completed the assigned manipulation, and then performed the IGT. A hierarchical linear regression was employed to compare IGT decision-making performance between the slow-paced breathing and mind wandering control conditions and assess potential moderating effects of stress, worry, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The primary study results revealed an interaction between study condition and perceived stress such that those with greater perceived stress exhibited poorer decision-making performance in the control group but better decision-making in the slow-paced breathing intervention group. No overall group differences between the intervention and control condition on decision-making performance were observed, and no other moderators significantly influenced IGT performance. This study shows that an accessible, easy-to-implement intervention can significantly improve decision making, but only among those with high perceived stress.