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.

中文翻译：

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坐在看不见吗？探索人们在心理上如何代表坐姿。

背景技术越来越多的证据表明，长时间不间断的坐着可能对健康有害。久坐行为的许多研究都依赖于就座时间的自我报告，而减少坐姿的干预措施通常着重于减少坐着的动机。这些方法假定人们有意识地意识到自己的坐着时间。借鉴行动识别理论，本文认为人们很少将坐着的行为本身识别为“坐着”，而是将其视为更有意义，更有目的的通常就座活动的偶然组成部分。方法研究1和2探索了人们是否在书面行动描述中提到坐。研究3-5比较了将通常基于办公桌的活动标记为“坐着”与其他动作身份的偏好。研究6和7使用纸牌排序任务来间接评估“坐着”相对于其他动作描述的优先级，以识别类似的动作。结果参与者在描述动作时（研究1-2）以及为坐下的活动分配动作标签时很少自发提及坐姿，他们倾向于基于更高的目标和动作的后果来进行描述，而不是基于坐姿或其他程序要素（研究）。 3-5）。参与者主要根据坐姿而不是坐姿进行的活动来确定行为上的相似性（例如，阅读；研究6-7）。结论与基于就座行为的目的和含义的表象相比，“就座”是对就座活动的一种较不易理解的认知表示。研究结果表明，自我报告的措施应着重于坐着的活动所花费的时间，而不是试图通过直接召回来测量就座时间。从干预的角度来看，研究结果表明，针对需要就座的行为，以及提高对就座的认识，这是尝试减少就座时间的潜在先兆的重要性。