We investigated the effects of a special breathing technique, the "Breathing Retraining technique," on performance in emergency situations. Participants were divided into three groups: the breathing method group, the visual task group, and the control group. Participants in the breathing method group performed the Breathing Retraining technique, those in the visual task group performed a simple visual task, and those in the control group performed a random task before performing the main one.

more »

... e main task was the water-pipe game, whereby participants clicked on a computer mouse in various situations and aimed to complete the game using the minimum number of clicks. Results indicated that the breathing method group accomplished the most difficult main tasks faster and more efficiently than the other groups in simulated emergency situations. These results suggest that people can work comparatively fast and efficiently even in emergency situations by practicing the Breathing Retraining technique beforehand. Additionally, there were no significant differences between the visual task group and the control group. This result indicates that it is not helpful to merely wait for an emergency; practicing the right breathing technique in advance helps individuals perform better in emergency situations. This article is the English translation of the original one "Ueda, M., Wada, K., and Usui, S. (2015). Joint Procrustes analysis: Simultaneous nonsingular transformation of component score and loading matrices.