Dioux, V. 1 , Mathey, S. 2 , Lacassagne, M. 1 , Cometti, D. 1 , Robert, C. 2 & Zagar, D. 1
1 Laboratoire Socio-Psychologie et Management du Sport, Université de Bourgogne
2 Laboratoire de Psychologie, Santé et Qualité de Vie, Université Bordeaux 2
Age-related changes in adults have recently been shown to affect the process of visual word recognition. Older adults generally take longer to respond to words in the lexical decision task (LDT) than young adults. In addition, the inhibitory process of competition between lexical candidates (orthographic neighbourhood frequency and syllable frequency effects) has also been shown to be impaired in older adults. Several previous studies have shown that aerobic exercise can improve reaction times but not inhibitory mechanisms in older adults. This study aimed to investigate the influence of aerobic exercise on both reaction times and syllable frequency inhibitory effect in the LDT. The experiment consisted of a baseline session (LDT alone) and a moderate exercise session (walking + LDT). Forty older and 20 younger adults participated in the experiment. The results showed no inhibitory effects for older adults in the baseline session. More important, the beneficial effects of acute exercise were observed for half of the older adults. They displayed both shorter RTs and a syllable inhibitory effect. These data suggest that exercise, when it is effective, can improve the whole word recognition mechanism.