The impact of an extracurricular outdoor physical activity program on long-term memory in adolescent during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of an 8-week extracurricular outdoor physical activity program aimed to improve long-term memory performance in adolescent concerning the Covid-19 period. Participants were 40 schoolchildren (aged 16-17) who trained twice a week in aerobic exercise two hours per session, randomly assigned to participate in either an extracurricular outdoor physical activity program (EG; n = 20) or a waitlist control group (CG; n = 20). At baseline and after training we administered the Verbal Paired Associates (VPA-I) a subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale – IV (WMS-IV, 2009), which represents one of the most widely used instruments for assessing explicit episodic memory performance. The results suggested that after 8-week aerobic exercise program students were able to increase their long-term memory, and that this capacity was more evident following physical activity that required greater cognitive involvement.