Acute effects of physical exercise of different intensities on working memory : Masters thesis

Abstract: Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate acute effects of physical exercise of different intensities on working memory. Method: Twelve young adults, 20-40 years, 8 males and 4 females passed the screening and participated in a randomized experimental crossover within-subject design study with three experimental conditions. Working memory was measured with n-back consisting of three difficulty levels.  Results: No significant interaction effect within subjects between the three different exercise intensity conditions for accuracy or response time was found. A significant main effect of time was detected for n-back response time, F(1,11)=40.2, p=<.001, reflecting an overall shorter response time after exercise compared to before, independent of exercise intensity condition. A two-way interaction effect on accuracy was found between n-back session 1 and 2 in the low fitness group.  Conclusions: The exercise intensity does not seem to matter for the improvement of working memory performance. However, participants response time was shown to be faster following any given exercise intensity.