Physical and cognitive benefits result from regular engagement in physical activity (PA). An emerging line of research on children’s cognition, suggest that there are association between PA and cognitive performance, yet little is understood about the effects of a single bout of PA on the underlying mechanism of executive control or how individual process information at this stage of development. As such, the purpose of this research study was to examine the effect of an acute bout of vigorous intensity PA on Trails Making Test performance (TMT).
Method:
Seventy-two 8th graders (males=44) from an urban middle school were randomly assigned to counterbalanced groups that received both a single 20-min bout of PA (via an aerobic circuit) and a single bout of sedentary activity (SA). The TMT A and B were completed at 20 and 25 minutes post PA and SA. During the PA bout, participants wore heart rate monitors ensuring work rate remained within the vigorous intensity zone as set using the CDC (2011) guidelines. A second testing session was conducted after a 14 day period to allow for learning effects.
Analysis/Results:
A 2 x 2 mixed factor repeated measures ANOVA cross-over construct design reported main effects at F(1, 70), 4.417, p=.046, d=.1 in the SPSS (version 19.0) output. However, after further extrapolation data revealed that the low-functioning TMT A test, aligning with previous literature, was not statistically significant (p>.025). The high-functioning TMT B was ‘trending’ towards significance, at p = .034.
Conclusions:
Unlike previous research, the findings from this study suggest that PA does not significantly mediate cognitive performance. The performance of school-aged children in cognitive-type tests within complicated field-based research may be confounded by other variables such as physical fitness levels, maturation and individualized dose-responses to PA. It is also well documented that improvements in cognition after a bout of PA may be task dependant (Tomporowski 2003). This research contributes to the refined search for the appropriate dose of PA in facilitating cognition.