Exercise has been purported to produce changes in cognitive functioning; the published research on this issue is reviewed. Studies were classified according to the intensity and duration of the exercise intervention, and the results of the studies were evaluated on the basis of current theories of information processing. Although several studies provided data that suggest that exercise produces short-term facilitate effects on mental tasks, the relation remains problematic. Inconsistencies among studies are believed to be due to the failure of researchers to use a theory-based parametric approach to the issue. Suggestions for future research are offered.The physiological effects of exercise on the human body are relatively well known. The changes that occur in the cardiovascular, respiratory, skeletal, and other organic systems during and after exercise have been described in detail (Fox, 1984;Mathews & Fox, 1976). Much less well known, however, are the effects of exercise on psychological variables. Individuals who exercise routinely report changes in mental states during and after physical exertion. The psychological variables most often reported to be altered by exercise are mood and affect. Many exercisers report enhanced feelings of well-being and euphoria, often referred to as the "runner's high." Numerous studies have attempted to assess the effects of exercise on personality and mood variables. Comprehensive reviews of these studies have been made by Folkins and Sime (1981), Greist et al. (1981), Layman (1974), and Morgan (1974.

A first study, free recall, showed that the von Restorff effect could be produced by the interpolation of a photograph of nude human beings at Serial Position 8 in a 15-item list consisting of line drawings of familiar objects. This effect was accompanied by a retrograde amnesia at the two serial positions immediately preceding the interpolated item. A substantial anterograde amnesia resulted from the nude photograph, affecting the 6 following positions. A second study presented 5s a recognition task. Lists of 30 photographs from popular magazines were shown at .75-sec. or l.SO-sec. rates, and recognition memory for 12 of the positions was probed by presenting 12 old and 12 new pictures on a "test" trial. Photographs of nudes were interpolated at Serial Position IS. A profound anterograde amnesia resulted, with the effect being greater for the .75-sec. rate. No retrograde amnesia resulted.

No abstract

In two experiments, 5s were required to free recall lists of line drawings of common objects. Some of the lists contained a critical item, a photograph of nudes, in place of the middle item. In addition, instructions regarding rehearsal, rate of presentation of list items, and exposure duration of the critical item were varied. The critical item produced' a von Restorff effect accompanied by substantial anterograde and retrograde induced amnesia. Instructions minimizing rehearsal had no effect on retrograde amnesia, but increased anterograde amnesia. Faster rates of presentation increased only anterograde amnesia while longer exposure durations of the critical item increased only retrograde amnesia. These results were interpreted as suggesting separate causal factors for retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia seemed best explained in terms of retrieval failure and anterograde amnesia in terms of encoding failure.

Naveh-Benjamin (1987 has shown that memory for spatiallocation does not meet the eriteria for automatie eneoding as claimed by Hasher and Zaeks (1979). Age, intention, eoneurrent proeessing demands, praetiee, strategies, and individual differenees affected memory for 10-eation. These variables should have affeeted effortful but not automatie processing. The experiments reported in the present paper, in whieh a different task was used, showed that intention, praetiee, and eoneurrent processing demands did not affeet memory for loeation. I eoncluded that (1)the location task used by Naveh-Benjamin included effortful subtasks and also ineidental cover or eoneurrent processing tasks that interfered direetly with performance, and (2) the variables that he manipulated may not have affeeted the eneoding of location. The need to differentiate processes from task performance in analyzing the automatieity issue is diseussed. The dominant mode for remembering location is automatie, but such information may also be remembered voluntarily.