摘要：Recent research considers distress (in)tolerance as an essential component in the
development of various forms of psychopathology. A behavioral task frequently used to
assess distress tolerance is the breath holding task. Although breath holding time (BHT)
has been associated with behavioral outcomes related to inhibitory control (e.g., smoking
cessation), the relationship among breath holding and direct measures of executive
control has not yet been thoroughly examined. The present study aims to assess (a) the
BHT-task’s test-retest reliability in a 1-year follow-up and (b) the relationship between a
series of executive function tasks and breath holding duration. One hundred and thirteen
students completed an initial BHT assessment, 58 of which also completed a series
of executive function tasks [the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Parametric
Go/No-Go task and the N-back memory updating task]. A subsample of these students
(N = 34) repeated the breath holding task in a second session 1 year later. Test-retest
reliability of the BHT-task over a 1-year period was high (r = 0.67, p < 0.001), but none of
the executive function tasks was significantly associated with BHT. The rather moderate
levels of unpleasantness induced by breath holding in our sample may suggest that other
processes (physiological, motivational) besides distress tolerance influence BHT. Overall,
the current findings do not support the assumption of active inhibitory control in the
BHT-task in a healthy sample. Our findings suggest that individual differences (e.g., in
interoceptive or anxiety sensitivity) should be taken into account when examining the
validity of BHT as a measure of distress tolerance.
