The Effect of Exercise on Encoding and Recall of Information

Research has demonstrated the benefits of moderate aerobic exercise on cognitive function (Coles & Tomporowski, 2008; Skriver et al., 2014). Here, we examine the relationship between aerobic exercise, encoding rate, and forgetting. Participants either watched a movie or performed an acute bout of aerobic exercise for 30 minutes (moderate pace of walking in Study 1; running in Study 2). Participants then completed a paired-associate-learning task, which involved learning word pairs and then recalling one word of the pair when presented with the other to measure the rate of learning. Two days later, participants returned and were given a surprise recall task to measure forgetting. Results of Study 1 indicated that participants in the exercise group did not learn the words faster or recall more at follow-up. Preliminary results of Study 2 also indicate that participants in the exercise group did not learn the words faster or recall more at follow-up. These results contradict a number of published studies that show even short bouts of exercise can benefit cognitive functions.