Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Research on the relationship between acute physical activityand cognition in children has often found beneficial effects ofexercise on a variety of cognitive abilities. One domain thatremains underexplored, however, is the relationship betweenexercise and long-term memory in children, and in particularwhether the general-domain effects observed in previousstudies could translate to a school-based learning activity,such as vocabulary learning. To address this issue, this studyfocused on the possible effects that a bout of moderate,aerobic physical activity could have on the immediate anddelayed recall of newly acquired word forms and form-meaning connections of children in a school setting. In linewith previous research, the results show a positive effect ofexercise, but only for word form recall. This study expandsour understanding of the differential effects of exercise onmemory, while raising questions regarding the possiblemoderating influence of gender and memory consolidation.