title: Statistical Learning Is Not Affected by a Prior Bout of Physical Exercise.
abstract: This study examined the effect of a prior bout of exercise on implicit cognition. Specifically, we examined whether a prior bout of moderate intensity exercise affected performance on a statistical learning task in healthy adults. A total of 42 participants were allocated to one of three conditions-a control group, a group that exercised for 15 min prior to the statistical learning task, and a group that exercised for 30 min prior to the statistical learning task. The participants in the exercise groups cycled at 60% of their respective V˙O2 max. Each group demonstrated significant statistical learning, with similar levels of learning among the three groups. Contrary to previous research that has shown that a prior bout of exercise can affect performance on explicit cognitive tasks, the results of the current study suggest that the physiological stress induced by moderate-intensity exercise does not affect implicit cognition as measured by statistical learning.
authors.affiliation: Exercise, Health, and Performance Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Speech Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arciuli
authors.affiliation: Exercise, Health, and Performance Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney.|Department of Kinesiology, San Francisco State University.
authors.forename: David I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: Cognition; Exercise; Implicit learning; Incidental learning; Physical activity; Statistical learning