The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2011) recommends adults between 18-64 years old should have at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening exercise two or more days a week. The CDC surveyed more than 400,000 people in 2011 and found that only slightly more than half met the recommended amount of aerobic activity and less than a third met the muscle-strengthening guideline (CDC, 2011). American Heart Association (AHA; 2013) reported that physical activities benefit the body and also promote brain health, learning and memory. This study investigates memory in young adults after a period of regular aerobic exercise.
Method:
Immediate memory recall was assessed using the Kaplan Baycrest Neurocognitive Assessment (KBNA; Leach, Kaplan, Rewilak, Richards, & Proulx, 2000) before and after the exercise program. The Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE; Borg, 1998) was used to rate the difficulty of exercise intensity and heart rate was recorded after each exercise session. Participants were full-time college students, 20-30 years old (N = 56, M = 21.63 years ± 1.61), randomly assigned to the experimental group (EG) or control group (CG). A total of 51 (EG = 25, CG = 26) completed the study. The EG was required to participate in a led exercise program for 50 minutes at 50-70% of maximum heart rate, 3 times/week for 6 weeks. The EG could not engage in any other exercise during the experiment. The CG was required to maintain an inactive lifestyle.
Analysis/Results:
A 2 x 2 (group x test) ANOVA with repeated measures was used to analyze the difference in memory between the groups. A significant interaction existed between group and test F(1, 49) = 12.31, p < .05. Means of two factors were directly compared due to the levels of variables.
Conclusions:
The investigation showed that the EG had higher memory recall scores than CG after the intervention. Findings suggest that regular aerobic exercise may facilitate memory in college students.