Loprinzi PD, Frith E, Crawford L. The Effects of Acute Exercise on Retroactive Memory Interference.
Am J Health Promot 2019;
34:25-31. [PMID:
31359765 DOI:
10.1177/0890117119866138]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE
Retroactive interference involves the disruption of previously encoded information from newly learned information and thus may impair the consolidation of long-term memory. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether acute exercise can attenuate retroactive memory interference.
DESIGN
Three experimental studies were employed. Experiment 1 employed a between-subject randomized control trial (RCT) involving moderate-intensity walking (15 minutes). Experiment 2 employed a between-subject RCT involving high-intensity jogging (15 minutes). Experiment 3 employed a within-subject RCT involving moderate-intensity walking (15 minutes).
SETTING
University setting.
PARTICIPANTS
One hundred twelve young adults.
MEASURES
After exercise, memory interference was evaluated from an episodic word-list memory task, involving the recall of 2 word lists.
RESULTS
The pooled effect size (standard difference in means: -0.35; 95% confidence interval: -0.64 to -0.06) across the 3 experiments was statistically significant (P = .01).
CONCLUSION
We provide suggestive evidence that acute, short-duration exercise may help attenuate a retroactive memory interference effect. Implications of these findings for exercise to improve memory and attenuate memory decay are discussed.
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