In the present study, we evaluated the effects of a brief bout of exercise on executive function, short-term memory, and long-term memory tests. Eighteen young adults (mean age 22.2 years, s = 1.6) performed a set-switching test, a Brown-Peterson test, and a free-recall memory test before and after 40 min of moderate aerobic exercise on a cycle ergometer, and two control conditions. Exercise did not facilitate set switching or short-term memory, which suggests that exercise-induced arousal does not influence executive function processes involved in the reconfiguration of information in working memory. Exercise did alter specific aspects of delayed long-term memory. Free recall of items in the primacy and recency portions of the word list declined following the rest and non-exercise conditions, but was maintained after exercise, which suggests that exercise-induced arousal may facilitate the consolidation of information into long-term memory.

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.

Ere performed before exercise, five times during 40 min of ergometer cycling at 90% ventilatory threshold, and three times during a 30-min postexercise period. In a separate control session, each participant performed the same sequence of tests while seated on the ergometer without pedaling. Results: ANOVA were performed separately on CFF and PASAT scores, which compared performance during exercise and nonexercise conditions at nine time points. Planned ANOVA of CFF scores revealed that the participants' sensory discrimination increased during exercise and then quickly returned to baseline levels immediately after exercise. PASAT scores did not change during or after exercise. Conclusions: Exercise-induced arousal facilitates sensory processes involved in stimulus detection but does not influence the updating component of executive processing....

Background: Motor competence has important developmental associations with aspects of physical health, but there has been no synthesis of longitudinal associations with cognitive and social-emotional health. Objectives: The first aim was to present a conceptual model that positions motor competence as a mediator between physical activity and cognitive and social-emotional outcomes. The second aim was to synthesize the association of motor competence and cognitive and social-emotional development using longitudinal observational and experimental evidence, in particular to (i) identify the role of task, individual, and environmental characteristics in moderating the association between motor and cognitive and social-emotional outcomes and (ii) synthesize the strength of evidence pertaining to domain-specific relationships. Methods: This systematic review was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) and adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Five electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, and SPORTDiscus) were systematically searched. Following study screening and risk-of-bias assessment by two authors, 49 eligible studies were identified for inclusion and grouped by study design. Evidence for domain-specific paths between motor competence and cognitive and social-emotional outcomes was synthesized by calculating the significant analyses in the hypothesized direction, divided by the total number of analyses for that path. These percentages were then collated for each domain outcome. This collated influence was classified as either no association (0–33%), written as ‘0’, or indeterminate/inconsistent (34–59%), written as ‘?’ If there were fewer than three studies in the domain, the strength of evidence was classified as insufficient (I). Results: Of the 49 studies, 35% were able to satisfy six or more of the seven risk-of-bias criteria. Longitudinal observational evidence about domain-specific and global associations of motor competence and cognitive and social-emotional development is indeterminate. The included studies also did not provide evidence for a consistent moderating role of age and sex. Some preliminary experimental evidence does support the role of motor competence in moderating the influence of cognitively enriched physical activity on cognitive outcomes, especially working memory and social-emotional skills. However, too few studies were appropriately designed to acknowledge the moderating role of contextual mechanisms. Conclusions: Between-study heterogeneity means it was not possible to identify definitive domain- and construct-specific relationships between motor competence and cognitive and social-emotional outcomes. To further develop our understanding, it is important that researchers acknowledge the complexity of these relationships within rigorous study designs.