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Faculty Mentors

Dr. Emily Simonavice

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if exercise in the form of moderate intensity interval training had an effect on memory by comparing the performance of number of words recalled after the implementation of an exercise condition and a control condition.

Methods: The investigators tested a total of 20 participants. All participants completed an informed consent document prior to testing. Participants had three minutes to memorize a list of 15 words. This was followed by either 15 minutes of interval training or 15 minutes of sitting in a controlled environment. All participants participated in both the control and experimental conditions. A paired samples t-test was used to determine statistical significance.

Results: The participants were able to recall an average of 11±3 words in the control condition and an average of 9±4 words in the exercise condition. The results showed no statistical significance between control and exercise performance (p=0.10), nor was there any statistically significance difference in the performance between genders.

Conclusion: The study results show there was no effect on cognitive function performance (specifically short term memory) from moderate intensity interval training. This study failed to confirm that moderate intensity interval training evokes cognitive function benefits equivalent to those demonstrated in previous studies on continuous moderate intensity aerobic exercise and high intensity interval training. Future studies should look into the effect of varying duration and intensity of the interval training to find a possible correlation.

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