Does Exercise Reduce Mind Wandering: The Role of Mood and Exercise Frequency
Abstract
Chronic exercise provides various physical health benefits (Penedo & Dahn, 2005) but also results in a variety of benefits to cognitive functioning including improving working memory (Padilla, Perez, & Andres, 2014) and attention (de Sousa et al., 2019). Exercise also releases various endorphin hormones that contribute to increased positive mood (Rokade, 2011). However, less is known about how chronic exercise influences frequency of mind wandering. Mind wandering, defined as experiencing an off-task thought, has been linked to mood such that negative mood predicts higher rates of mind wandering (Smallwood & O’Connor, 2011). The current study examined the relationship between exercise frequency, mood, and mind wandering. Two- hundred and nineteen undergraduates completed measures of working memory, attention control, mind wandering, and self-reported current mood and exercise frequency and intensity. The results replicate prior work showing that more negative mood is positively correlated with greater rates of mind wandering. Further, exercise frequency was negatively related to current mood, such that individuals that exercised more frequently experienced less mind wandering during attention tasks. While exercise frequency was not directly related to mind wandering rates, a significant mediation was found such that exercise frequency predicted more positive mood, which in turn predicted less mind wandering. These results suggest that the benefits of exercise on some cognitive phenomenon (e.g. mind wandering) may be due to the influence of exercise on mood.
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Jonathan Banks
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-5-2023 12:00 PM
End Date
4-6-2023 4:00 PM
Does Exercise Reduce Mind Wandering: The Role of Mood and Exercise Frequency
Alvin Sherman Library
Chronic exercise provides various physical health benefits (Penedo & Dahn, 2005) but also results in a variety of benefits to cognitive functioning including improving working memory (Padilla, Perez, & Andres, 2014) and attention (de Sousa et al., 2019). Exercise also releases various endorphin hormones that contribute to increased positive mood (Rokade, 2011). However, less is known about how chronic exercise influences frequency of mind wandering. Mind wandering, defined as experiencing an off-task thought, has been linked to mood such that negative mood predicts higher rates of mind wandering (Smallwood & O’Connor, 2011). The current study examined the relationship between exercise frequency, mood, and mind wandering. Two- hundred and nineteen undergraduates completed measures of working memory, attention control, mind wandering, and self-reported current mood and exercise frequency and intensity. The results replicate prior work showing that more negative mood is positively correlated with greater rates of mind wandering. Further, exercise frequency was negatively related to current mood, such that individuals that exercised more frequently experienced less mind wandering during attention tasks. While exercise frequency was not directly related to mind wandering rates, a significant mediation was found such that exercise frequency predicted more positive mood, which in turn predicted less mind wandering. These results suggest that the benefits of exercise on some cognitive phenomenon (e.g. mind wandering) may be due to the influence of exercise on mood.
