Abstract

LAKI, Adam et al. Impact of 'last experience' on affect after exercise reaching the anaerobic threshold: a laboratory investigation. CPD [online]. 2021, vol.21, n.3, pp.16-31.  Epub May 23, 2022. ISSN 1989-5879.

The affective benefits of a single bout of exercise are widely reported, but several factors influence the affect measured after exercise. One is the last experience linked to the exercise session. In this laboratory study, we manipulated progressive treadmill exercise to ventilatory threshold by using cognitive tasks during and immediately after the exercise when we gauged affect and compared it to pre-exercise baseline. We assumed that the affective responses after exercise would mirror feeling states associated with the very last experience (i.e., the cognitive task) rather than exercise. We examined a total of 53 athletes assigned to exercise or no-exercise control group. In addition to heart rates, positive and negative affect, feeling state, and perceived arousal were measured before and after the intervention. The results revealed substantial improvements in affect in both groups, based on large effect sizes. The lack of difference in the dependent measures between the exercise and no-exercise control group may suggest that both groups responded to the same last experience (i.e., cognitive task), and the effects of exercise and sitting (control) were wiped out. These findings imply that pre- to post-intervention exercise investigations testing the psychological benefits of a single bout of exercise may not measure what they intend to measure, but merely the affective responses to the last experience or event before answering the questionnaire(s). In brief, many hundreds of studies' internal reliability, employing the pre/post protocols, may be questionable.

Keywords : arousal; cognition; expectation; feeling state; placebo effect.

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