Effectiveness of aerobic exercise on short-termmemory and sustained attention among school students

Abstract

Reduced physical activity, there is a problem in health and cognitive function. There is evidence from the high-quality studies to strongly support the positive relationship between increased level of physical activity increases the function of the brain especially the cognitive function like short term memory and sustain attention function, so the study aims to determine the effects of aerobic exercise on the short-term memory and sustained attention among school students. 30 school going studentswere selected as subjects considering theinclusion and exclusion criteria. Study Type: Single group quasi-experimental study design. Study setting: samples arechosenfrom a school at Chennai according to inclusion and exclusion criteria.Sampling technique: Random sampling technique. Sample Size: 30 subjects. 30 school going students were engagedas participantsin high-intensity interval training for 20 minutes, cyclingbouts at the intensity with theupkeepofpulseof 70-89%.Statistical analysis was carried out for the collected data using descriptive and interferential statistics. Mean and standard deviation was calculated for different parameters inpre-test and post-test and the data were computerized and analyzed. The mean value and standard errors were calculated for different variables and the difference in mean value was tested for statistical significance using a paired t-test. A p-value of <0.0001 was considered as statistically significant. It has been concluded that the present study evaluated the impact of aerobic exercise, high-intensity interval training intervention on cognitive performance of short-term memory, and sustained attention in school students. The result demonstrated that the high-intensity interval training improved the subject's short-termmemory and sustained attention following the pre-test and post-test results of the Stroop test and digit span test. Keywords: Cognition; short-term memory; children; aerobic exercise.