A study on the influence of a single bout of moderate-intensity exercise on processing bias towards emotional information of individuals with high psychosocial stress levels

Abstract

To explore the impact of a single bout of moderate-intensity exercise on cognitive bias of individuals with high psychosocial stress levels. 42 college students with high stress levels were recruited and divided into a exercise group (N = 21) and a no-exercise group (N = 21). The psychological and behavioral characteristics were studied using word-face stroop task, memory bias task, and interpretion bias task. College students with high psychosocial stress levels have attention bias, memory bias, and Interpretion bias towards negative emotional information, and a single bout of moderate-intensity exercise can increase attention bias towards neutral and positive emotional information, and memory bias towards neutral emotional information, interpretation bias towdrds positive emotional information. A single bout of moderate-intensity exercise can increase the positive cognitive bias towards emotional information, which is beneficial for regulating psychosocial stress levels.