When Challenge Turns into Threat at the Chessboard: Cardiovascular Reactivity and Flow Across Two Hours of Task...

Although flow experience has become a widely studied phenomenon in recent decades, research on its physiological manifestations is still limited. With the present study, we aimed to fill part of this research gap by approaching the flow concept from a biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat (BPS-CT) perspective. Impedance cardiography, electrocardiography and blood pressure of chess players (N = 32) were measured continuously while they completed a two-hour session of "mate in two moves" tasks on a computer under conditions of a balance of skills and task demands. Self-reported flow was assessed afterwards. On a descriptive level, results revealed the occurrence of (a) a modest cardiovascular challenge pattern during an initial phase of task engagement and (b) a cardiovascular threat pattern after one hour until the end of task performance, accompanied by cardiovascular indicators of motivational disengagement. On average, participants reported a high perceived balance of skills and demands and subjective flow experience, which was negatively associated with perceived strain but mostly unrelated to cardiovascular reactivity. The benefits, limitations and future potential of applying the BPS-CT framework to the study of the physiological implications of prolonged flow experiences are discussed.