Abstract
Cognitive strategy has been identified as a strategy of interest in the literature on exercise. We focused on two major cognitive strategies: associative strategy and dissociative strategy. Associative strategy equates to concentration on a task (exercise), while dissociative strategy means distraction from a task (Stevinson & Biddle, 1998). In spite of many literatures concerning athletic sport, little is known about the psychological states for non-athletic exercise with cognitive strategy. This study examined the effect of non-athletic acute exercise with cognitive strategies on psychological states. Sixteen subjects were recruited and participated under two separate conditions of counter-balanced design: an association-exercise condition and a dissociation-exercise condition. Under both exercise conditions, subjects performed 10 minutes cycling exercise at moderate intensity. Subjects were rated on two exercise-specific scales: Waseda Affect Scale of Exercise and Durable Activity (WASEDA; Arai, et al., 2003b) and Feeling Scale (FS; Rejeski, 1985) at pre-exercise, warm-up, before immediately finishing exercise, and 5-minutes post exercise. Analysis of variances (ANOVAs) showed that both conditions significantly enhanced Positive Engagement, Tranquility, and Pleasantness. It was also found that association-exercise enhanced Pleasantness compared to dissociation-exercise at before immediately finishing 10 minutes exercis.
