ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1608721
Effects of acute and chronic exercise on working memory in healthy adults. An experimental investigation
Provisionally accepted
- Rey Juan Carlos University, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain
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Introduction: Working memory is critical for optimal development of academic and occupational functions, and its deterioration is associated with mental health issues. Exercise-based interventions have emerged as a prominent strategy to enhance cognitive functions and improve mental health. The objective of this study is to analyze the effects of both acute and chronic physical exercise on working memory in the context of cognitive and experimental psychology.Methods: Participants (73 adults aged between 18 and 65 years) performed appraisal tests on working memory based on image recovery (Test 1) and decision-making on verbal mathematical operations (Test 2), with the experimental group performing one-hour intense functional training (acute exercise) immediately before. The World Health Organization (WHO) classification based on weekly chronic exercise was also used for categorization of participants.The results show that both types of physical activity positively affect cognition. Chronic exercise favored all aspects of working memory (verbal mathematical operations and decision making; p-value = 0.014; pη 2 = 0.081 // image recovery; p-value = 0.033; pη 2 = 0.062), while acute exercise only favored those related to image recovery(p-value = 0.007; pη 2 = 0.099).To enhance working memory, it is recommended that both companies and educational centers promote both types of physical exercise. For future research, in addition to increasing the sample size, it would be beneficial to vary the length of training as well as the difficulty of the assessment tests.
Keywords: exercise1, Working memory2, chronic exercise3, acute exercise4, Cognition5, highintensity functional training 6
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 14 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Borrega-Alonso and Otamendi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Eva Borrega-Alonso, Rey Juan Carlos University, Móstoles, 28933, Madrid, Spain
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