Experimental Investigation Examining the Effects of Acute Exercise on Implicit Memory Function

• Published in: Europe's journal of psychology Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 700 - 716
• Main Authors: Loprinzi, Paul D, Gilbert, Morgan, Robinson, Gina, Dickerson, Briahna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany PsychOpen 19.12.2019; PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology
• Subjects: consciousness; declarative memory system; physical activity; procedural memory; Research Reports; procedural memory; declarative memory system; consciousness; physical activity
• ISSN: 1841-0413; 1841-0413
• DOI: 10.5964/ejop.v15i4.1837

Emerging work suggests that acute exercise can enhance explicit memory function. Minimal research, however, has examined whether acute exercise is associated with implicit memory, which was the purpose of this study. Three separate experimental studies were computed (N = 120; Mean age = 21). In Experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to either a moderate-intensity bout of acute exercise (15-minute) or engaged in a seated control task (15-minute), followed by the completion of a word-fragmentation implicit memory task. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, but instead employed a higher-intensity exercise protocol. For Experiment 3, participants were randomly assigned to either a moderate-intensity bout of acute exercise (15-minute) or engaged in a seated control task (15-minute), followed by the completion of a real world, 3-dimensional implicit memory task. For Experiment 1, the exercise and control groups, respectively, had an implicit memory score of 7.0 (0.5) and 7.5 (0.6) (t(38) = 0.67, p = .51). For Experiment 2, the exercise and control groups, respectively, had an implicit memory score of 6.9 (1.9) and 7.8 (2.4) (t(38) = 1.27, p = .21). These findings suggest that exercise, and the intensity of exercise, does not alter implicit memory from a word fragmentation task. For Experiment 3, the exercise and control groups, respectively, had a discrimination implicit memory index score of 0.48 (0.18) and 0.29 (0.32) (t(38) = 2.16, p = .03). In conclusion, acute exercise does not influence a commonly used laboratory-based assessment of implicit memory but may enhance real world-related implicit memory function.