Berse, T. 1 , Dutke, S. 1 , Uhlenbrock, K. 2, 3 , Völker, K. 2 & Knecht, S. 3
1 University of Muenster, Institute of Psychology in Education
2 University Hospital Muenster, Institute of Sports Medicine
3 University Hospital Muenster, Department of Neurology
Given the relevance of associative learning and executive functioning for learning, optimizing these cognitive processes is highly desirable from an educational point of view. A growing body of research in sports and neurosciences suggests that physical exercise can improve cognitive functioning. The current study investigated a sample of eighth- and ninth-grade students using a cross-over design. Performance in a set-shifting task and in an implicit associative word learning paradigm (Wernicko) was measured after a short, intense physical exercise intervention on a bicycle ergometer and a period of rest. The order of interventions was counterbalanced between participants. In contrast to previous studies, the present sample consisted of healthy high-school students, and the complete experimental procedure was run at school. Intermediate analysis of 109 participants indicated that physical exercise significantly reduced shifting costs. With respect to associative learning performance we found an interaction between type of condition and order of condition only in a subgroup of efficient learners. We concluded that short high-impact physical exercise interventions are beneficial for learning. However, the exercise effect vanished when the learning task was too difficult.
Final analysis of the complete sample will be presented and discussed at the conference.