title: Acute, intermediate intensity exercise, and speed and accuracy in working memory tasks: a meta-analytical comparison of effects.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare, using meta-analytic techniques, the effect of acute, intermediate intensity exercise on the speed and accuracy of performance of working memory tasks. It was hypothesized that acute, intermediate intensity exercise would have a significant beneficial effect on response time and that effect sizes for response time and accuracy data would differ significantly. Random-effects meta-analysis showed a significant, beneficial effect size for response time, g=-1.41 (p<0.001) but a significant detrimental effect size, g=0.40 (p<0.01), for accuracy. There was a significant difference between effect sizes (Z(diff)=3.85, p<0.001). It was concluded that acute, intermediate intensity exercise has a strong beneficial effect on speed of response in working memory tasks but a low to moderate, detrimental one on accuracy. There was no support for a speed-accuracy trade-off. It was argued that exercise-induced increases in brain concentrations of catecholamines result in faster processing but increases in neural noise may negatively affect accuracy.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sport, PE and Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, St. Leonard's Land, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ, Scotland, United Kingdom. t.mcmorris@chi.ac.uk
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McMorris
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sproule
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Beverley J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Hale
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*