THE EFFECT OF EYE EXERCISES ON WORKING MEMORY PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event THE EFFECT OF EYE EXERCISES ON WORKING MEMORY PERFORMANCE Janet Fedley1* and Mitchell Longstaff1 1 Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Australia Aim: Eye movements, called saccades, whether voluntary or involuntary have been shown to stimulate inter-hemisphere activation and hence enhance contra-lateral processing in working memory retrieval and problem solving. This study explored the effect of eye exercises on performance in two tasks, a mental rotation task and a verbal serial recall task, to investigate whether performance on these tasks is enhanced. Other influencing factors of handedness, sex, age and anxiety were also explored. Method: The two tasks were administrated pre and post eye exercise manipulation to 36 adults, with 18 receiving a fixed eye exercise and 18 receiving a moving eye exercise. The fixed exercise involved looking at a small circle in the centre of the screen as it changed colour and hitting a key on a keyboard whenever it turned red. The moving exercise was similar but with the circle moving in a pattern around the screen. Results: Serial word recall was significantly greater following both fixed and moving eye exercises. Contrary to expectations, there was a greater improvement in the fixed eye condition. In the mental rotation task, no difference was found in base reaction times between the two groups, however there was a non-significant trend towards a larger decrease in mental rotation time for the moving eye group compared to the fixed eye group. Conclusion: These findings indicate that working memory performance may not be enhanced by moving eye exercises. Furthermore, performance may be mediated by other factors such as age, sex, handedness and anxiety. The present study indicates that working memory enhancement may be possible through fixating the eyes and concentrating on a stationary target, however further investigation is required. Keywords: Anxiety, handedness, working memory, Sex, Eye exercise Conference: Southern Cross University 13th Annual Honours Psychology Research Conference, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, 7 Oct - 7 Oct, 2016. Presentation Type: Research Topic: Psychology Citation: Fedley J and Longstaff M (2016). THE EFFECT OF EYE EXERCISES ON WORKING MEMORY PERFORMANCE. Front. Public Health. Conference Abstract: Southern Cross University 13th Annual Honours Psychology Research Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.FPUBH.2016.02.00014 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 29 Sep 2016; Published Online: 30 Sep 2016. * Correspondence: Ms. Janet Fedley, Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450, Australia, j.fedley.10@student.scu.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Janet Fedley Mitchell Longstaff Google Janet Fedley Mitchell Longstaff Google Scholar Janet Fedley Mitchell Longstaff PubMed Janet Fedley Mitchell Longstaff Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.