Effect of single bout of aerobic exercise on vigilance task performance

There has been accumulative interest in how, and to what level, physical activity might affect cognitive performance in general (Mastroianni, Chuba, & Zupan, 2003). The present study examined the effect of single bout of aerobic exercise on vigilance task performance. A 3 (Exercise Protocols: No exercise, mild exercise, moderate exercise) ×4 (Time Periods: Four 10 min block) mixed factorial design with repeated measure on last factor was used. Forty two young adults within age range of 19 to 24 were randomly assigned into three different experimental groups. One groups of participants exercised under moderate protocols, second group of participants exercise under mild exercise protocol while the third group rested for 10 minutes. Following these interventions all participants observed 40 minutes visual vigilance task. Repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that, performance of moderate exercise group on reaction time measure more inhibited than mild exercise and no exercise groups (p = 0.001). However correct detection and incorrect detection performance among different experimental groups remained intact. Participant?s perceptual sensitivity among groups differed across time periods (p = 0.03). The findings has been discussed in terms of Mackworth?s (1968) habituation theory.