Effects of Moderate-to-Vigorous Acute Exercise on Conscious Perception and Visual Awareness.

Background: the effect of acute exercise on cognition covers almost all stages of information processing, but few studies have focused on visual awareness. Reports on the appearance of faint speed-changes in the perception of stimuli were used as an index for visual awareness. Visual awareness was assessed after exercise or rest. Aside from the detection of speed-changes, speed-change discrimination was added as an index of perception. Results: the results showed that reports on the appearance of faint speed-changes were affected by acute aerobic exercise. The d' index was higher after exercise. The hit rate for speed-change detection was marginally significantly higher after exercise than after the sedentary test condition. Analysis of the results obtained for the discrimination task showed that discrimination speed was boosted only when subjects were aware of the speed-change. Importantly, neither false alarm rate nor response bias was affected by exercise. Conclusions: acute moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise improved subjects' awareness of speed changes. In addition, there was a perceptual advantage due to exercise.

Does Cognitive Attitude Matter When Affective Attitude Is Negative in Physical Activity Behavior Change?

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to determine the moderation effects of affective attitude on the effects of cognitive attitude and intention on leisure-time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Methods: A total of 2100 undergraduate students completed validated instruments measuring their affective and cognitive attitude, intention to do MVPA, and leisure-time MVPA. Hierarchical regression analyses and Hayes' Process program (model 1 and model 58) were used to address the research questions. Results: The results showed that affective attitude significantly moderated the effects of cognitive attitude on MVPA. It suggested that when affective attitude was negative, the effect of cognitive attitude on MVPA was not significant; when it was positive, the higher the value of affective attitude score, the larger the effects of cognitive attitude on MVPA. The results also showed that affective attitude significantly moderated the effect of intention on MVPA and the indirect effects of cognitive attitude on MVPA through intention. It suggested that the higher the value of the affective attitude, the larger the effects of intention on MVPA and the larger the indirect effects of cognitive attitude on MVPA through intention. Conclusions:These results indicate that the moderating role of affective attitude in behavior change is important and should be considered for future theory development on the relationship between attitude and behavior. Practically, it suggests that people's affective attitude should be first understood and addressed when designing PA promotion programs.