Cognitive reappraisal and affective response to physical activity: associations with physical activity behavior.

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive reappraisal (CR), as an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, may play a role in transforming affect in a positive direction during or after exercise, thereby supporting physical activity (PA) adherence. The present study aimed to test the associations among PA, CR frequency, and affective response to PA, and further to examine the role of CR on PA behavior through affective response. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 105 adults, 74 of whom were women, with a mean age of 25.91. Self-report scales were used to measure PA, CR, and affective response to PA. Along with scales, demographic questions on age, sex, and education level were included. Data was collected via an online questionnaire. RESULTS: The frequency of CR use was positively associated with affective response, and affective response with PA behavior. Mediation analysis revealed that affective response mediated the relationship between CR and PA. DISCUSSION: Results were in the expected direction demonstrating the mediating role of affective response between CR and PA which implies that PA adherence might be facilitated by CR engagement. PA intervention programs should consider implementing CR ability and use frequency improving techniques.

The contribution and interplay of implicit and explicit processes on physical activity behavior: empirical testing of the physical activity adoption and maintenance (PAAM) model.

The adoption and maintenance of physical activity (PA) is an important health behavior. This paper presents the first comprehensive empirical test of the Physical Activity Adoption and Maintenance (PAAM) model, which proposes that a combination of explicit (e.g., intention) and implicit (e.g., habit,, affect) self-regulatory processes is involved in PA adoption and maintenance. Data were collected via online questionnaires in English, German, and Italian at two measurement points four weeks apart. The study included 422 participants (Mage= 25.3, SDage= 10.1; 74.2% women) from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, and the U.S. The study results largely supported the assumptions of the PAAM model, indicating that intentions and habits significantly mediate the effects of past PA on future PA. In addition, the effect of past PA on future PA was shown to be significant through a mediation chain involving affect and habit. Although the hypothesis that trait self-regulation moderates the intention-behavior relationship was not supported, a significant moderating effect of affect on the same relationship was observed. The results suggest that interventions targeting both explicit and implicit processes may be effective in promoting PA adoption and maintenance.

Do executive functions predict physical activity behavior? A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Executive functions (EFs) are important determinants of health behaviors. In the present study, a meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between EFs and physical activity (PA) behavior. METHODS: Systematic searches were carried out in PsycInfo, MEDLINE, and SPORTDiscus databases throughout April 2021. Prospective empirical studies conducted with general healthy populations across the lifespan, which reported the relationship between baseline EFs and later PA behavior were selected. RESULTS: Eight studies were found eligible. Results of the multilevel meta-analysis revealed a small but significant total effect size for EFs on PA behavior of z = 0.12. High heterogeneity was observed among studies. When potential moderators were tested, residual heterogeneity remained significant and the effects of the moderators were not significant. The effect size dropped when accounted for publication bias. CONCLUSIONS: Despite limitations, the study provided evidence for EFs' determinant role on PA behavior. More research is however encouraged to inform PA promotion programs that are well-prepared for individual differences in EFs.

Differential Bilateral Primary Motor Cortex tDCS Fails to Modulate Choice Bias and Readiness in Perceptual Decision Making.

One of the critical factors that guide choice behavior is the prior bias of the decision-maker with respect to different options, namely, the relative readiness by which the decision-maker opts for a specific choice. Although previous neuroimaging work has shown decision bias related activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, in a recent work by Javadi et al. (2015), primary motor cortex was also implicated. By applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), they have revealed a causal role of the primary motor cortex excitability in the induction of response time (RT) differences and decision bias in the form of choice probability. The current study aimed to replicate these recent findings with an experimental design that contained a sham group to increase experimental control and an additional testing phase to investigate the possible after-effects of tDCS. The conventional decision outputs such as choice proportion and RT were analyzed along with the theory-driven estimates of choice bias and non-decision related components of RTs (e.g., motor implementation speed of choices made). None of the statistical comparisons favored the alternative hypotheses over the null hypotheses. Consequently, previous findings regarding the effect of primary motor cortex excitability on choice bias and response times could not be replicated with a more controlled experimental design that is recommended for tDCS studies (Horvath et al., 2015). This empirical discrepancy between the two studies adds to the evidence demonstrating inconsistent effects of tDCS in establishing causal relationships between cortical excitability and motor behavior.