Effects of short-term aerobic exercise on creativity

Effects of 12 minutes aerobic exercise on creativity

“…Longer exercise durations may be needed to promote flexibility and originality. Moreover, aerobic dance is a free form of aerobic exercise, in contrast to the fixed movements of the aerobic exercise program used in this experiment; thus, duration and freedom of movement might promote originality and flexibility (Zhao et al, 2022). It should be noted that the above results may also be caused by other factors, such as improved speed of information processing, so further exploration is needed in subsequent studies.…”

“…Convergent thinking involves solving problems with a conventional approach (e.g., established methods or rules), which can help people draw logical conclusions or find an effective answer from existing data; this ability is commonly assessed with problem solving and the remote associates test (RAT) (de Rooij & Vromans, 2020). Divergent thinking is a way of thinking that subverts tradition, generates new ideas, and often offers multiple solutions to a problem; this ability is commonly assessed with the alternate uses task (AUT) and the consequences task (Zhao et al, 2022). A previous study found that 25 min of aerobic exercise improved creative performance (Zhao et al, 2022).…”

“…Divergent thinking is a way of thinking that subverts tradition, generates new ideas, and often offers multiple solutions to a problem; this ability is commonly assessed with the alternate uses task (AUT) and the consequences task (Zhao et al, 2022). A previous study found that 25 min of aerobic exercise improved creative performance (Zhao et al, 2022). Would benefits still be achieved with a shorter exercise duration?…”

“…To ensure that the two sets of AUT are balanced in difficulty, sixc items that are common in everyday life and familiar to the participants were selected, with three items used for each task. The aerobic exercise adopted in this study consisted of 12 movements with rapid speed and jumps, inducing moderate intensity exercise within a short time; these movements were drawn from a set of aerobic exercise programs (Zhao et al, 2022). This aerobic exercise is performed in the following order: marking time, skipping rope, backward kicks, stretches, knee touches, leg raises, jumping jacks, stretching to touch the ankles with both hands, squats, knee lifts, knee presses, small jumps to both sides, and a variety of stretches.…”

Self-determination in Physical Exercise Predicts Creative Personality of College Students: The Moderating Role of Positive Affect

“…Specifically, creative personality includes risk-taking, curiosity, challenge, and imagination (Williams, 1980 ). There is extensive evidence that creativity is associated with physical exercise (Steinberg et al, 1997 ; Frith and Loprinzi, 2018 ; Román et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2022 ). Significantly, prior studies indicated that individuals participate in activities out of extrinsic motivation, such as self-improvement, and it is conducive to the increase of creativity (Amabile, 1985 ; Hennessey and Amabile, 1998 ; Sansone and Harackiewicz, 2000 ; Moneta and Siu, 2002 ; Gerhart and Fang, 2015 ).…”