title: The influence of childhood aerobic fitness on learning and memory.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a growing trend of inactivity among children, which may not only result in poorer physical health, but also poorer cognitive health. Previous research has shown that lower fitness has been related to decreased cognitive function for tasks requiring perception, memory, and cognitive control as well as lower academic achievement.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between aerobic fitness, learning, and memory on a task that involved remembering names and locations on a fictitious map. Different learning strategies and recall procedures were employed to better understand fitness effects on learning novel material.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-eight 9-10 year old children (n = 24 high fit; HF and n = 24 low fit; LF) performed a task requiring them to learn the names of specific regions on a map, under two learning conditions in which they only studied (SO) versus a condition in which they were tested during study (TS). The retention day occurred one day after initial learning and involved two different recall conditions: free recall and cued recall.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no differences in performance at initial learning between higher fit and lower fit participants. However, during the retention session higher fit children outperformed lower fit children, particularly when the initial learning strategy involved relatively poor recall performance (i.e., study only versus test-study strategy).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We interpret these novel data to suggest that fitness can boost learning and memory of children and that these fitness-associated performance benefits are largest in conditions in which initial learning is the most challenging. Such data have important implications for both educational practice and policy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Lauren B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Raine
authors.forename: Hyun Kyu
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Saliba
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chaddock-Heyman
authors.forename: Charles H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Hillman
authors.forename: Arthur F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Kramer
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D010809:Physical Fitness; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
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