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Although anecdotal reports suggest that information processing and decision making is impaired immediately following prolonged periods of physical activity, results obtained from laboratory studies of exercise-induced fatigue have been inconsistent. Fatigue effects may be task specific and related to the time of post-exercise testing. The present study examined the effects on adults' performance of two cognitive tasks that differed in processing demands over an 80-min period of fatigue. Thirty young adult men and women were randomly assigned to either an exercise group and completed a 60-min bout of cycle ergometry at 90% ventilatory threshold or a control group and rested for 60 min. Following interventions, each participant completed a simple and complex version of a visual perceptual discrimination test, a 40-min memory-based vigilance test and a repetition of the visual perceptual discrimination tests. Those who exercised evidenced significant decrements in performance on complex perceptual-discrimination tasks compared to participants who rested. The response time of exercisers during a memory-demanding vigilance test were significantly slower than those of participants who rested; however, detection performance did not differ between groups neither was there a decrease in target detection across the vigil. The effects of exercise-induced fatigue may be task specific, with greater effects on perceptual tasks, which involve relatively automatic processing, compared to effortful memory-based tasks.

Younger (n=13) and older (n=18) adults received training in working-memory tasks. Training on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task did not influence overall workload ratings. Training on attention-switching and response-inhibition tasks resulted in age-related differences in ratings. Effect of training on workload ratings was age and task dependent. (Contains 45 references.) (SK)

The vigilance of young adults with and without mild mental retardation (MR) was compared, with subjects performing two memory demanding, cognitively based tests. The vigilance decrement of MR adults declined more rapidly than did the vigilance of non-MR adults, due to an interaction between target detectability and response bias, and poor target detection. (Author/JDD)

The sustained attention of 16 mildly retarded and 16 nonretarded adults was assessed during 2 60-minute vigilance tests differing in memory demand. Performance of retarded subjects declined more rapidly in later stages than did that of the nonretarded subjects. Implications for the study of memory load are discussed. (SLD)

Purpose: The purpose of this review was to evaluate the effects of physical activity on children's free recall, cued recall, and recognition episodic memory and to explore potential moderating factors. Methods: The following databases were searched: PubMed, ERIC, APA Psych Info, CINHAL, SPORTDiscus, and Google Scholar. Studies were included if: (1) participants were aged 4–18 years, (2) participants were typically developed, (3) participants were randomized to groups, (4) interventions employed gross movements, (5) sedentary group was used for control, (6) memory tests were quantitative, and (7) employed acute or chronic intervention. Results: 14 studies met inclusion criteria resulting in the analysis of data from 7 free recall, 7 cued recall, and 8 recognition memory tests. Physical activity was found to have a positive influence on tests free (g = 0.56), cued recall (g = 0.67), and no influence on tests of recognition (g = 0.06). While some moderator analyses were significant, the authors do not consider these results to be meaningful in application. Conclusions: The effects of acute and chronic physical activity enhance specific aspects of long-term episodic memory. These findings suggest physical activity interventions developed for children may be expected to benefit some, but not all, types of memory processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustained attention of 23 young adults with mild mental retardation and nonretarded subjects was assessed. Findings suggested that the sustained attention of the retarded differs from that of the nonretarded on those vigilance tasks that place demands on memory abilities. (Author/DB)

Accumulating research demonstrates that acute exercise can enhance long-term episodic memory. However, it is unclear if there is an intensity-specific effect of acute exercise on long-term episodic memory function and whether this is influenced by the post-exercise recovery period, which was the primary objective of this experiment. Another uncertainty in the literature is whether aerobic endurance influences the interaction between exercise intensity and post-exercise recovery period on long-term episodic memory function, which was a secondary objective of this study. With exercise intensity and post-exercise recovery period occurring as within-subject factors, and fitness as a between-subject factor, 59 participants (Mage = 20 years) completed 12 primary laboratory visits. These visits included a 20-min bout of exercise (Control, Moderate, and Vigorous), followed by a recovery period (1, 5, 10, and 15 min) and then a word-list episodic memory task, involving an encoding phase and two long-term recall assessments (20-min and 24-h delayed recall). The primary finding from this experiment was that moderate and vigorous-intensity exercise improved memory function when compared to a non-exercise control. A secondary finding was that individuals with higher levels of aerobic endurance, compared to their lesser fit counterparts, had greater memory performance after exercise (moderate or vigorous) when compared to after a control condition. Additionally, individuals with higher levels of aerobic endurance, compared to their lesser fit counterparts, generally performed better on the memory task with longer post-exercise recovery periods. Future research should carefully consider these parameters when evaluating the effects of acute exercise on long-term episodic memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if physical arousal produced by isometric hand-dynamometer contraction performed during word-list learning affects young adults' free recall or recognition memory.Method: Twenty-four young adults (12 female; Mage = 22 years) were presented with 4 20-item word lists. Moderate arousal was induced in 12 adults by an initial 30-s maximal hand-dynamometer squeeze with force productions of 50% maximum; low arousal was induced in 12 adults by an initial 1-s maximal dynamometer squeeze with force production of 10% maximum during learning. Memory performances following dual-task conditions experienced during the encoding, consolidation, and recall phases of learning were compared to a single-task control condition during which words were learned in the absence of isometric exercise.Results: Planned contrasts revealed that arousal coinciding with word encoding led to significantly poorer immediate recall, F(1, 23) = 10.13, p < .05, [Formula: see text] = .31, delayed free recall, F(1, 23) = 15.81, p < .05, [Formula: see text] = .41, and recognition memory, F(1, 23) = 6.07, p < .05, [Formula: see text] = .21, compared with when there was no arousal. Neither arousal condition facilitated participants' memory performance.Conclusion: The reduction in long-term memory performance specific to the encoding phase of learning is explained in terms of the dual-task attentional demands placed on participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine whether people differed in change in performance across the first five blocks of an online flanker task and whether those trajectories of change were associated with self-reported aerobic or resistance exercise frequency according to age. A total of 8752 men and women aged 13–89 completed a lifestyle survey and five 45-s games (each game was a block of ~46 trials) of an online flanker task. Accuracy of the congruent and incongruent flanker stimuli was analyzed using latent class and growth curve modeling adjusting for time between blocks, whether the blocks occurred on the same or different days, education, smoking, sleep, caffeinated coffee and tea use, and Lumosity training status (“free play” or part of a “daily brain workout”). Aerobic and resistance exercise were unrelated to first block accuracies. For the more cognitively demanding incongruent flanker stimuli, aerobic activity was positively related to the linear increase in accuracy [B=0.577%, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.112 to 1.25 per day above the weekly mean of 2.8 days] and inversely related to the quadratic deceleration of accuracy gains (B=−0.619% CI, −1.117 to −0.121 per day). An interaction of aerobic activity with age indicated that active participants younger than age 45 had a larger linear increase and a smaller quadratic deceleration compared to other participants. Age moderates the association between self-reported aerobic, but not self-reported resistance, exercise and changes in cognitive control that occur with practice during incongruent presentations across five blocks of a 45-s online, flanker task. (JINS, 2015, 21, 802–815) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definitive conclusions concerning the impact of exercise interventions on children's mental functioning are difficult to ascertain because of procedural differences among studies. A narrative review of studies was conducted to evaluate the role of two types of exercise interventions on children's cognition. Acute and chronic exercise interventions were classified as quantitative or qualitative on the basis of manipulations of task complexity and, by inference, mental engagement. Both types of interventions enhance aspects of children's cognition; however, their effects on metacognitive processes are unknown. The role of metacognitive processes and their regulation of children's behavior and academic performance are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of memories was once thought to happen within a single memory system with multiple processes operating on it, it is now believed that memory is comprised of both distinct and interacting brain systems [[1]]. Recent work suggests that acute exercise can improve memory in older adults [[23]], and, for select memory systems (e.g., working memory), acute exercise may improve memory for individuals across the adult lifespan [[52]]. Collectively, these reviews suggest that, from the most recent experimental work on this topic, utilizing more robust designs and considering potential moderators that have been shown to influence effect sizes (e.g., memory type and timing of acute exercise in reference to the memory task [[24]]), acute exercise may be effective in enhancing post-exercise memory. In a 2012 quantitative review, Chang et al. [[14]] also showed null effects for post-exercise memory, but a different story unfolded when evaluating distinct memory systems across exercise paradigms (i.e., including memory during exercise and memory after exercise). [Extracted from the article]