The Effect of Exercise on Short-Term Learning

We hypothesized that exercise improves students’short-term ability to learn, but emotional changes due to social media negativity can disrupt this effect. We gave 80 consenting students a pre-test containing questions extracted from a short documentary on humpback whales. After that, we showed them the video clip, which contained the same information. Then, we asked the participants to write a paragraph about an issue that they liked and were passionate about. We instructed them to imagine that they posted this paragraph on social media. Then, these participants were randomly assigned to either imagine receiving strong negative or positive responses to their postings. We further assigned each of the two groups randomly to either use an ergonomic bicycle or color a blank diagram for five minutes. After that, we gave the participants a post-test with the same questions they had received in the pre- test. Analysis of covariance, controlling for years in college and sex, showed a significant main effect of exercise on short-term learning. The effect of social media response and the interaction effect were not statistically significant. Exploratory regression and mediation analyses showed that the effect of exercise on short-term learning is mediated by college experience and sex. These results suggest that all students can obtain academic benefits from exercising habitually, but especially women and students who are starting their academic careers.