How Physical Activity Impacts Sustained Attention

In this paper, I sought to understand the effects of physical activity on sustained attention to learn whether exercise is a useful tool for people who require continuous focus on a single task (e.g., students). Previous research has found that increases in attention are associated with physical activity variables such as the duration of exercise performed, when the exercise is performed in relation to the mental task that followed, and the intensity of the physical activity. In my correlational study, I tested the strength of these relationships by examining naturalistic daily changes in their variables longitudinally over a period of four weeks. I measured duration of exercise, the interval between exercise and attention task, intensity of exercise in terms of heart beats per minute through my Fitbit watch, and I measured attention by the percentage of errors and average reaction time on the Continuous Performance Task (CPT) test. Data from this correlational study showed no statistical correlation between attention and any of the exercise variables but did show a trend towards significance for the exercise duration variable. The findings in this study suggest that the relationship between exercise and attention may not be as strong as predicted for people in their day-to-day life.