Dataset for Auditory Interaction Between Runners: Does Footstep Sound Affect Step Frequency of Neighboring Runners?

This is the dataset for runners' step frequency (SF), heart rate (HR) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) collected in laboratory, which was used in the study on Furukawa et al. (2023) 'Auditory Interaction Between Runners: Does Footstep Sound Affect Step Frequency of Neighboring Runners?'. Abstract This study aimed to investigate the effect of footsteps of a neighboring runner (NR) on the main runner's SF, HR, and RPE. The participants were male long-distance runners belonging to a university track and field team. Two experiments were conducted in which the main runner (participant) and NR (examiner) ran with the same running speed on two adjacent treadmills separated by a thin wall. The participants were instructed that the experimental purpose was to investigate the HR when running with others and running alone. In Experiment 1, NR performed three trials of changing the footstep tempo in 5 bpm (beat per minute) faster (+5bpmFS), 5 bpm slower (-5bpmFS), or no footsteps (NF) conditions. The results showed that the footstep condition affected the variability of the SF but not the mean SF. Next, Experiment 2 was conducted by increasing the footstep tempo condition. NR performed seven trials of changing the footstep tempo by ±3 bpm, ±5 bpm, ±10 bpm, or no footstep. The results showed that the footstep condition affected the mean SF and the SF decreased at -10bpmFS compared to NF. There were no differences in the HR and RPE between conditions. These results indicated that the footsteps of NR could influence the SF, although it was unclear whether footsteps were involved in the synchronization between runners. Overall, our findings emphasize the environmental factors that influence running behavior, including the NR's footsteps. For more details on how to view the data sets SF, HR, and RPE data are in .xlsx format. Experiment 1 or Experiment 2 is indicated in the file name. p1-p16 represent participant number. The name of each sheet is the name of the condition. Also, the running speed data is in .docx format. In Experiment 2, the all data of participant p12 (equal to #18 in running speed data) was excluded from the analysis of this study because he had a within-participant standard deviation of SF greater than 3 SDs from the mean across participants.