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.

The effect of mind wandering on cognitive flexibility is mediated by boredom.

Cognitive theory of boredom presumes that boredom, an important potential indicator for self-dysregulation, represents to be the result of attention failure. And lapses of attention have been shown to act as a key signal in mind wandering (especially spontaneous mind wandering), which has been found to be positively associated with boredom. If both mind wandering and boredom concurrently occupy individuals' on-task processing resources, it would definitely influence their cognitive flexibility, which is an essential component for self-regulation. Until now, however, there has been little discussion about mind wandering, boredom, and cognitive flexibility at the same time. The present study investigated the hypothesis that boredom can mediate the effect of mind wandering on cognitive flexibility at trait-level by adopting a cross-sectional exploratory study design and anonymous structured questionnaires in three studies (N = 449,182 and 190 for Studies 1, 2 and 3, respectively). Correlation analysis demonstrated that mind wandering (especially spontaneous mind wandering) was positively related to boredom, and that cognitive flexibility was negatively related to mind wandering and boredom, respectively. Mediation analysis revealed an indirect effect of mind wandering (especially spontaneous mind wandering) on cognitive flexibility through boredom. In conclusion, these findings are useful to build a theoretical framework for future clinical practice. An implication of these findings is the possibility that efficacious strategies targeting at reducing boredom are needed to decrease the detriment effect of spontaneous mind wandering on cognitive flexibility.

Corrigendum: The impacts of mind-wandering on flow: Examining the critical role of physical activity and mindfulness.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.674501.].

The impacts of mind-wandering on flow: Examining the critical role of physical activity and mindfulness.

Background: Individuals with mind-wandering experience their attention decoupling from their main task at hand while others with flow experience fully engage in their task with the optimum experience. There seems to be a negative relationship between mind-wandering and flow. However, it remains unclear to what extent mind-wandering exerts an impact on flow. And it is also elusive whether physical activity and mindfulness, which are as important factors that affected individuals' attentional control and psychological health, are beneficial in explaining the association between mind-wandering and flow. The current study investigated the relationship between mind-wandering and flow, and the potential mediation effects of physical activity and mindfulness in this association. Methods: A cross-sectional exploratory study design, including multiple scales such as the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ), the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ), Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), and the Short Dispositional Flow Scale (S-DFS) was applied. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlation coefficients were applied in the analysis of these data. A multiple mediation model was used to examine the relationships between mind-wandering, flow, physical activity, and mindfulness. Results: Mind-wandering was inversely associated with physical activity, mindfulness and flow, respectively; and flow was positively related to physical activity and mindfulness, respectively. Moreover, multiple mediation results demonstrated that physical activity and mindfulness, respectively, mediated the relationship between mind-wandering and flow. Conclusion: These findings are helpful to understand how our minds attend to the present moment, and the crucial roles of physical activity and mindfulness in the association between mind-wandering and flow. An implication of these is the possibility that the effective strategies aimed at enhancing both the levels of physical activity and mindfulness are needed to reduce the negative impact of mind-wandering on flow.