Method: 140 male and female students ages 15 to 18 were recruited from physical education classes in a high school in the southwestern United States. All participants performed one familiarization session on the cognitive test and exercise protocols. Beginning one week after the familiarization session, participants performed the three experimental sessions in random order, separated by seven days each. The interventions were aerobic exercise, strength exercise, and non-exercise. Cognitive functions were measured using the Victoria version of the Stroop Test, which has been validated as a means of assessing selective attention. Each exercise intervention was matched for time, and intensities were monitored using heart rate monitors and rating of perceived exertion (RPE). The non-exercise control consisted of participants viewing a sports-related DVD for 30 minutes. Participants were monitored to insure that they did not fall asleep or get up to move around. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to analyze cognitive differences based on exercise type.
Analysis/Results: A one-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed that exercise type had a significant (p < .01) effect on all three forms of the Stroop test (Dot, Word, Color). Pairwise comparisons revealed that both aerobic and resistance exercise exhibited significantly faster scores than the non-exercise condition for the Dot test (p < .01), Color test (p < .01), and Word test (p = .005, p = .029) respectively. Resistance and aerobic exercise did not differ significantly from each other under any condition of the Stroop test.
Conclusions: Acute resistance and aerobic exercise both significantly increased cognition in high school youth. These findings extend the current knowledge related to acute youth aerobic exercise and its positive impact on cognition to include resistance exercise. This finding gives physical educators and classroom teachers additional tools in their arsenal to potentially increase student achievement.