Long-term aerobic exercise and exercise memory effect: The role of exercise intensity

Abstract

Long-term aerobic exercise can improve the level of declarative memory and procedural memory, especially under different intensity exercise, the improvement effect of declarative memory is more obvious.This study adopted a mixed design, selected 569 college students as the research objects, through 8 weeks of different intensity of exercise intervention, to explore the effect of post-exercise memory effect. The changes of declarative memory and procedural memory before and after exercise in the low-intensity exercise group, the moderate-intensity exercise group and the control group were respectively measured. The results showed that the medium-intensity aerobic exercise had a selective positive influence on the memory effect of college students after exercise, and it did not change with the change of gender.

1 Introduction

Cognitive psychologists divide knowledge into two basic types: declarative and procedural. Declarative knowledge is the knowledge of knowing what, and procedural knowledge is the knowledge of knowing how to do it^[1]。The predecessor of procedural knowledge is declarative knowledge, which is required to understand the conditions of a process by providing the materials required by the program. The procedural knowledge that students acquire in the classroom is mainly in its declarative form^[2]。In the process of sports learning, knowledge is the foundation of sports skill learning, and the formation of skills is conducive to the mastery of knowledge. The degree of knowledge mastery has an important influence on the learning effect of students. Scientific and reasonable knowledge learning can promote the all-round development of students. The relationship between knowledge learning and students' physical and mental health development has gradually become the focus of experts in education, psychology, physical education and other related disciplines.Finding effective means to improve students' learning effect has become an important frontier and hot topic in multidisciplinary research, and there is a trend of interdisciplinary research. A number of studies from the field of sports science have found that exercise improves academic performance^[3].Shephard et al. followed first-grade students for 6 years and found that participation in physical activity improved academic performance^[4]. A. G. uest et al. (2003) conducted A questionnaire survey and academic performance analysis on 6458 high school students in the United States and found that participating in physical exercise would improve the academic performance of high school students^[5]. Welk G. J. et al. (2010) investigated the physical health status and academic performance of middle school students in Texas, and concluded that the healthier students are, the better their academic performance will be, and the improvement of their physical health status will also have a great impact on the improvement of their academic performance^[6]. Jacobs J.P. et al. (1994) took American college students as the research object and found that the establishment of academic goals while setting the intensity and mode of physical exercise could improve the learning effect after a semester of exercise intervention^[7]. Horton et al. (2009) conducted a questionnaire survey on three college students in the United States and found that participating in sports can improve academic performance^[8].Shea and Morgan (1979) studied the learning and mastery of motor skills^[9].The experimental group provided declarative knowledge learning while the control group did not. By completing the task of knocking down obstacles with their hands, the results showed that the experimental group had a better transfer effect than the control group.Participation in sports can effectively promote the improvement of academic performance, and sports can effectively promote the development of brain cognitive function^[10].

Exercising the brain can produce large amounts of endocrinologists and endorphin, promote parthenogenesis and neurosis, alleviate adverse emotional states while achieving the effects of reward, calmness, and pleasure, thereby improving reward and cognitive control in the brain and enhancing the function of cognitive circuits^[11–13].Sports can improve sports-related attention control and learning ability by changing the activity levels of insular, cerebellum and stratum^[14–15].

There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between exercise intensity and task performance. Low intensity and high intensity exercise inducing too low or too high arousal level were not conducive to improving task performance, and only moderate intensity exercise could correspond to the optimal arousal level^[16].Studies have shown that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise is best for improving cognitive function^[17].Labban's team found that 30 minutes of moderate-intensity acute aerobic exercise before sentence memorization improved free recall at 35 minutes, 1 hour, and 24 hours postmortem points^[18–19].Some studies have explored the effect of acute aerobic exercise of different exercise intensity on word spelling ability, and the results showed that 20 minutes of high intensity and low intensity rush acute aerobic exercise also improved the spelling of words^[20].

Summarily, according to the above research, exercise can improve students' academic achievement. However, the improvement of learning effects through the intervention of exercises of different intensity has not been clearly revealed, which affects the scientific and practical application of exercise as an effective way of knowledge acquisition and physical and mental health development. Exercise intensity refers to the degree of physical stimulation of the human body during sports. Exercises of different intensities have different effects on students' physical and mental development^[21]. At present, this field mainly focuses on the influence of exercise on students' learning effects, but no empirical research has been found to comprehensively explore the influence of exercises of different intensity on students' learning effects. Therefore, it is essential to compare the differences in exercise intervention effects with different exercise intensities. It is equally important to provide basic data to reveal the improvement of students' learning effects with different exercise intensities.

Therefore, the present research hypothesizes that low and moderate intensity exercise would affect the learning effect by affecting the acquisition progress of procedural and declarative knowledge. In the process of acquiring declarative knowledge, moderate and low intensity exercise can affect its learning effect by affecting working and long-term memory.

In conclusion, according to the above research, exercise can promote the improvement of students' academic performance. However, the improvement of learning effect through different intensity of exercise intervention has not been clearly revealed, which affects the scientific and practical application of exercise as an effective means of knowledge learning and physical and mental health development. Exercise intensity refers to the degree of physical stimulation to the human body, and different intensity of exercise has different effects on the physical and mental development of students. At present, this field mainly focuses on the research on the influence of exercise on students' learning effect, and no empirical research has been found to comprehensively explore the influence of different intensity exercise on students' learning effect. Therefore, it is necessary to provide basic data to reveal the improvement of different exercise intensities and students' learning effects by comparing the differences in the effects of different exercise intensities.Therefore, this study proposes the hypothesis that medium - and small-intensity exercise can affect the learning effect by affecting the learning process of procedural and declarative memory. In declarative memory learning, medium and small intensity exercise can affect the learning effect of declarative memory by affecting working memory and long-term memory. To explore the influence of small and medium intensity exercise on the memory learning effect of college students, in order to reveal the improvement effect of different intensity exercise on the learning effect of college students, and to provide experimental evidence for the use of sports means to improve the learning and memory effect.

2 Research Methods

Data collection and ethical statements

I take my responsibilities as a researcher seriously, as stipulated and approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, China. The study was conducted according to the regulations, ethics and scientific principles of the Ethics Committee of the School of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences of Peking University; Ensure that all subjects participate in the experiment (questionnaire survey, exercise intervention), give informed consent and sign informed consent before entering the study; Ensure the authenticity, accuracy and completeness of data. At the same time, exercise intervention was studied according to the ethically approved experimental scheme.

2.1 Research Object

Taking the freshmen and sophomores of a university in Beijing as the research object, 16 classes of public sports elective courses were selected as a whole, with 569 students. Among them, 191 were boys and 378 were girls. There are 212 freshmen and 357 sophomores, with an average age of 20. Cardiopulmonary function examination was used to select the students suitable for the exercise intensity requirements of this experiment. 

2.2 Test Grouping

The selected students were randomly divided into small intensity exercise intervention group, medium intensity exercise intervention group and control group according to class. During physical activity time, the experimental group was subjected to 30-minute exercise intervention using different exercise programs. The heart rate was measured by Polar heart rate telemetry and the heart rate was monitored by radial artery. The heart rate was recorded at 5, 10 and 15 minutes after exercise, respectively. The control group took exercise program in the same period of time without heart rate monitoring of exercise intensity. 

2.3 Aerobic exercise intervention program

A scientific exercise intervention program needs to consider four main factors: exercise intensity, frequency, duration of each exercise, and exercise content (see Table 1). Among them, all experimental groups underwent exercise intervention for 8 weeks. Sports content for basketball dribbling and badminton flat draw. Exercise intensity was based on the American College of Sports Medicine's exercise intensity rating: 64% VO2max and 59% HRR for moderate and low intensity, respectively^[22]. Combined with relevant research results on college students in China ^[23],summarized the classification of aerobic exercise intensity of college students: the low-intensity aerobic exercise load was set as 50%-59% of the maximum heart rate of individuals, and the moderate intensity aerobic exercise load was set as 60%-69% of the maximum heart rate of individuals, in which the maximum heart rate was 220− age. Exercise intensity was controlled by heart rate index, which was measured by Polar heart rate telemetry and manual radial pulse measurement.

Table 1: List of exercise intervention programs in this study 

2.4 Measuring Tools 

Measurement tools

 (1) Basic information questionnaire: Name, gender, age, and major of the participants were registered.

(2)Experimental materials: The materials of Experiment one was based on declarative knowledge, using research materials from Chi et al. as references and other written materials about human blood circulation, which consists of 71 sentences.For example, the human blood circulation system is an "organized cooperative interaction" system, in which various components have systematic cooperative interaction. We can break down the circulatory system into different parts and understand the structure, function, and behavior of each component. There are elements in the text whose structural, behavioral, or functional features are not all stated but can be inferred from known features. In addition, there is also a certain causal relationship between one component feature and another component feature, and such causal relationship needs to be deduced by students, for example, the relationship between valve opening and closing behavior and the function of atria to accommodate blood (as shown in Figure 1). In the circulatory system, students should consider four causal relationships: The characteristics of the components themselves, the relationship between the characteristics of each component, the relationship between the characteristics of different components, the relationship between the characteristics of a component and the circulatory system. However, in the text, these four causal relationships are not all given, and can not be all given, because the relationship between them is quite complicated, not only a few sentences can be explained clearly. In this way, the unexpressed information leaves a lot of room for reflection and allows us to better evaluate students' understanding.   Twenty-one questions were selected as test materials. The first 11 questions were answered by students directly referring to the sentences in the text. For the last 10 questions, students had to integrate and deduct different sentences. Each subject completed the declarative knowledge test of Experiment one, and the test results were taken as the index of the knowledge acquisition effect, that is, the dependent variable of the experiment. 

Experiment two concerns procedural knowledge. In this experiment, the procedural knowledge of geographic causes in high schools was referred for examination. We selected the topic of "the formation of air pressure and wind zone" for testing, and the testing mainly included comprehension of signs, looking and filling in the blanks, looking at the pictures and reasoning, and discussion based on pictures. The procedural learning process of geographic genesis can be divided into acquisition stage, consolidation and transformation stage, transfer and application stage. The content of this part mainly includes three aspects: first, the composition of the atmosphere and vertical stratification, atmospheric heating process and thermal circulation principle, the distribution of air pressure belt, wind zone and the common weather systems, and the ability to explain the related phenomenon and analyze the effects of the distribution of air pressure belt and wind zone on climate formation and the causes of common weather phenomena by the principle of heat circulation. Second: summarize the basic principles and distribution rules by using the schematic diagram of atmospheric vertical wind layer, schematic diagram of atmospheric insulation effect, schematic diagram of thermal circulation, schematic diagram of global pressure zone, schematic diagram of wind zone formation and distribution, schematic diagram of pressure zone, seasonal movement diagram of wind zone, and investigate students' ability of drawing analysis and spatial positioning. Explain the related phenomena with the principle of thermal circulation and examine the students' logical reasoning ability. Third: understand the importance of following the laws of nature and living in harmony with nature on the basis of understanding the principles of climate formation. For example, see Figure 2.There were 21 questions in the test materials, of which 10 required the subjects to fill in the blanks and 11 were answered by looking at the picture. The test results were taken as the index of the knowledge acquisition effect, that is, the dependent variable of the experiment.

The test was divided into two parts. The first part assessed knowledge recall capabilities, which is the result of knowledge retention, and the second part is the application of knowledge, which is the result of knowledge transfer. 

2.5 Test Procedure

The whole experiment consists of three parts: pre-test, exercise intervention and post-test. Pre-test: Before exercise intervention, students used declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge questionnaires to measure the memory effect. Exercise intervention part: the design of exercise scheme for exercise intervention. Post-test: The same declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge questionnaires were used to measure the learning and memory effects after the 8-week exercise intervention. 

2.6 Experimental Design

The experimental design of 3 (intensity) ×2 (time) ×2 (knowledge type) was adopted. Among them, exercise intensity (between groups) : control group, moderate intensity and small intensity; Memory measurement time (within the group) : before and after exercise; There are two types of learning and memory (in-group) : declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. The types of knowledge are internal variables, including declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Exercise intensity and test time were inter-subject variables. Exercise intensity includes: no intensity, moderate intensity and low intensity. The test time included baseline and after exercise intervention. 

2.7 Experimental Statistics

Statistical software SPSS23.0 was used for data entry and management. In order to understand the influence of different exercise intensities on memory effect, this study used SPSS23.0 for ANOVA analysis.

3 Results

Descriptive statistics were conducted on different types of memory levels under different intensity exercise interventions, and the results were shown in the table below. 

Table 2 Descriptive statistical results of memory effect before and after different intensity exercise intervention

After ANOVA analysis of 3 (exercise intensity) ×2 (knowledge test time) ×2 (knowledge type), it is found that:The main effect analysis of memory test time.The main effect of memory test time was significant, F (1,566) = 78.88, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.122, indicating that the memory level before and after exercise had a significant change, that is, the memory level after exercise (M = 64.98, SD = 12.39) was significantly higher than the pre-exercise memory level (M = 60.45, SD = 10.23).The interaction and simple effect analysis of knowledge type × memory test time.First of all, the interaction of knowledge type × memory test time was significant, F (1,566) = 167.16, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.228, indicating that different knowledge types had different changes in memory level after exercise (see Figure 3).

Further, simple effect analysis showed that declarative memory level (M = 69.19, SD = 13.89) was significantly increased after exercise compared with before exercise (M = 60.49, SD = 12.88), F (1,566) = 201.44, p < 0.001; However, compared with before exercise (M = 60.40, SD = 10.78), there was no significant change in the level of procedural memory after exercise (M = 60.76, SD = 13.87), F (1,566) = 0.47, p = 0.634.

1) The interaction and simple effect analysis of exercise intensity × memory test time.First of all, the interaction of exercise intensity × memory test time was significant, F (2,566) = 11.80, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.040, indicating different changes in memory level after exercise intensity (see Figure 4).

Moreover, the simple effect analysis showed that there was no significant change in the overall knowledge memory level of the control group, F (1,566) = 1.45, p = 0.229, and the overall level of knowledge memory increased significantly after moderate-intensity exercise programs (F (1,566) = 66.05, p < 0.001), and there was a significant increase in overall knowledge memory after a low-intensity exercise program, F (1,566) = 39.22, p < 0.001, (see Table 3). 

Table 3: Overall knowledge memory level of different intensity exercise before and after exercise

1) The interaction of three factors, simple effect, and simple effect analysis of exercise intensity × knowledge measurement time × knowledge memory type.

2) Firstly, the interaction of exercise intensity × knowledge measurement time × knowledge-memory was significant. F (2,566) = 38.51，p < 0.001，η² = 0.120，2) it indicates that exercise types with different exercise intensity have different effects on learning of different knowledge types before and after exercise (see figure 5).

In addition, the simple effect analysis found that (1) for different levels of knowledge memory effect , the interaction between exercise intensity and knowledge memory measurement time was significant in terms of declarative knowledge, F (2,566) = 37.16，p < 0.001，η² = 0.116; for procedural knowledge, the interaction between exercise intensity and knowledge measurement time was not significant, F (2,566) = 0.46, p = 0.634, η² = 0.002; (2) for different levels of exercise intensity, the interaction between knowledge type and measurement time was not significant in the control group, F (2,1132) = 1.23，p = 0.293，for moderate intensity exercise type, the interaction between knowledge type and survey time was significant, F (2,1132) = 100.06，p < 0.001，for low-intensity exercise type, the interaction between knowledge type and knowledge survey time was significant, F (2,1132) = 47.79, p < 0.001. Further, the simple-simple effect analysis found that for declarative knowledge, the knowledge level of the control group did not change significantly, F (1,566) = 2.05, p = 0.153; knowledge levels increased significantly after moderate-intensity exercise, F (1,566) = 194.65, p < 0.001; knowledge levels increased significantly after a low-intensity exercise program, F (1,566) = 92.27，p < 0.001;For procedural knowledge, no matter what kind of intensity of exercise, knowledge level was not significantly changed (control group: F (1,566) = 0.36, P = 0.550; moderate intensity: F (1,566) = 0.13, P = 714; Low intensity: F (1,566) = 0.80, P < 0.371).

In addition, to understand the influence of different exercise intensity on learning outcomes of different genders, 3 (intensity) × 2 (knowledge test time) × 2 (sex), the ANOVA analysis was done and the results showed that the interaction of exercise intensity × knowledge measurement time × gender was not significant, F (2,560) = 0.80，p = 0.448，η² = 0.003，the relevant descriptive statistics results are shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Descriptive statistical results of the knowledge memory effect of different genders in different intensity exercise before and after exercise

4 Discussion

This experimental study found that different intensity exercise training of eight weeks on college students had a positive impact on their memory effect. Recent research indicates that exercise can promote brain changes to improve learning, memory, and all kinds of abilities.First of all, exercise improve the executive function.An important factor contributing to the improvement of learning ability is the content of the exercise training program which contain rich executive function operations. The training process is the process of repeatedly practicing and using executive functions, which is responsible for organizing and controlling goal-directed behavior; it is the total set of cognitive processes, including complex, non-automated processes that coordinate individuals' lower cognitive processes in goal-directed behavior^[24]. Located in the prefrontal cortex, neural circuits for executive functions are important, and low and moderate intensity exercise can activate this brain region, making individuals in the process of learning tasks associated with executive functions get better grades^[25].Secondly, exercise can improve memory. Studies have found that memory, as a higher cognitive function of the brain, has a more complex internal mechanism. When the exercise is near the memory material, its effect on memory lasts for 24 hours or more^[26]. After 10 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise before listening vocabulary memorization, the participants had a positive promoting effect on the memory effect of the free-recall task^[27]. Coles's research explores respectively 40 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic cycling effect on short-term memory and long-term memory, it is found that in the test of vocabulary learning tasks, short-term memory level tested immediately did not differ significantly from that of the control group and after a 12-minute delay, the exercise group had a significantly better effect on long-term memory than the control group^[28].

From the perspective of the value and effect of knowledge memory, we derive the following: the process of memory effect is the main way to promote cognitive development. The learning mechanism of declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge is to study the formation process of human cognitive structure, intelligence skills and cognitive strategies. In the process of basketball dribbling and badminton whipping, students sharpen their thinking process as these exercises sharpen the thought process of practicing continuous motor skills, constantly practicing new skills, analyzing technical characteristics, and judging the timing of hitting the ball and other thinking processes. In the process of learning these skills (basketball dribbling and badminton whipping skills), learners' knowledge acquisition and cognitive strategies can be trained and formed. 

It can be seen that exercise intervention of different intensity can improve memory effect, and this result provides in-depth experimental evidence that physical exercise improves academic performance and learning level. It also provides a practical basis for selecting a reasonable exercise intervention program from aerobic exercise intensity to improve memory effect.

Further analysis of this experiment found that the level of declarative knowledge could be significantly improved through different intensity exercise interventions. The intensity of basketball and badminton was controlled by setting factors such as speed, content, and times of movement. In this study, the basketball program adopts dribbling the ball on the move with different speeds as the test content, while the badminton program adopts flat driving at different speeds as the practice content. Different exercise speeds were applied to change the heart rate of participants to achieve the target exercise intensity. In this study, it was found that the moderate-intensity exercise interventions of these two kinds of exercise programs significantly improved declarative knowledge level, but the level of procedural knowledge was not improved obviously.This finding is consistent with previous research. After 30 minutes of power cycling exercise, the researchers found that moderate intensity acute aerobic exercise had a positive effect on the promotion of declarative memory, mainly through promoting the encoding process of declarative memory to improve the ability of long-term memory^[29]. The study by Labban's team and Roig's team suggests that "the effect of aerobic exercise on memory is primarily related to memory encoding and early consolidation processing, which better explains the effect of exercise on declarative memory^[30].

In the first stage of the declarative knowledge memory process, learners capture new knowledge, make it enter short-term memory, activate and connect with relevant knowledge in long-term memory, and form new meanings. The initial stage of learning basketball dribbling and badminton flat strokes is a learning process that requires declarative knowledge, and students must first master the technical essentials of basketball dribbling and badminton flat strokes. In the second stage, the learner must embed the newly constructed meaning in their long-term memory. The learner must also frequently review the acquired knowledge and endeavor to acquire more related knowledge, otherwise, the already acquired knowledge may diminish over time. By exercising for 30 minutes three times a week for eight weeks, students can master the skills of basketball dribbling and badminton flat strokes at different speeds through continuous practice. The third stage involves the extraction and application of these meanings. According to the biological theory analysis of the internal mechanism of the effect of exercise on memory, Winter et,al.^[31], explores the brain derived neurotic factor (BDNF) , with different intensity of acute exercise level changing, they found moderate intensity exercise can promote vocabulary learning and increase BDNF level  Studies have pointed out that BDNF is an essential factor for long-term memory consolidation in the hippopotamus^[32].

To sum up, through 8weeks of low and moderate different intensity exercise intervention,students can skillfully change different speeds to practice basketball dribbling and badminton flat strokes as directed by trainers. The intervention characteristics of the exercise programs in this study are consistent with the characteristics of the declarative knowledge memory effect stage,it can effectively improve memory ability by promoting the encoding process of declarative memory. Secondly, moderate intensity exercise may effectively release various microbiological factors, thus promoting the encoding or consolidation process of memory formation.Therefore, exercises can significantly improve the acquisition of declarative knowledge.

This study found no significant improvement in procedural knowledge. This result is consistent with the results of previous studies. Some studies have found that after 30 minutes of moderate intensity acute aerobic exercise, the subjects' procedural memory does not have a significant improvement effect^[33-34]. Ostadan's experiment explored the effect of aerobic exercise on procedural memory retention after 8 hours, and found that although the exercise group had a positive effect on procedural memory retention compared with the control group, it did not achieve a significant effect.

Similarly, the three stages of procedural knowledge memory effect are as follows: the first stage is the same as declarative learning; the second stage is to transform declarative knowledge into procedural knowledge, learners need to go through some variant practice to learn to use the rules. In our study, after 8 weeks of exercise intervention, the students mastered the dribbling and flat stroke skills at different speeds in basketball and badminton respectively and they could make the correct technical changes according to the requirements of different speeds. During Stage three, students were required to learn skills to achieve a certain degree of automation.This stage required students to be able to use it well in practical competitions.

   For example, in "basketball 3V3,” the technical transformation of fast and slow dribbles needs to be adjusted constantly according to the techniques and strategy; in badminton doubles, the speed and position of the flat strokes should be predicted according to the opponent's strokes. 

However, the exercise program in this study does not involve much in the practice of techniques and tactics. It was not quite consistent with the third stage of procedural knowledge memory effect. The first and second stages of procedural knowledge memory effect are closely related to the third stage of declarative knowledge test. The third stage of procedural knowledge memory effect requires the transfer and transformation of declarative knowledge. However, the research program in this study involves few learning essentials in this stage.According to relevant memory theories, the processing time of memory is relatively long, and sufficient procedural knowledge learning process is needed to better extract and consolidate memory. Aerobic exercise plays an important role in procedural memory, and its positive effect may be more prominent with the optimization of exercise intervention programs^[35-36]. So, exercise does not improve procedural knowledge significantly.

The results of this study showed that exercise interventions of different intensity had a positive effect on knowledge acquisition, but this effect was selective; that is, exercise can improve the learning level of declarative knowledge, but not of procedural knowledge. These results suggest that in future exercise intervention research, the design and selection of exercise intervention programs should be more abundant. More attention should be paid to the independent and interactive effects of other components of physical exercise (such as exercise type and content) on knowledge acquisition.

This experiment found that there was no significant difference in the knowledge level of college students of different genders after performing physical exercises of different intensity. 

Other findings from the research include (1) low and moderate intensity physical exercises can effectively improve the mental health of college students; (2) Moderate but slightly more intense exercise has better mental health benefit for male college students, moderate but slightly less intense exercise has better mental health benefit for female college students, Moderate and low intensity exercise has positive mental health benefit for male college students and female college students, but there is no significant difference^[37]; (3) the differences in psychological changes and knowledge acquisition due to the intensity of the physical exercises between male and female students is not significant.

The process of knowledge acquisition is influenced by the brain's executive function; studies have found that short-term physical exercises of different intensities have a positive effect on the brain’s executive function of college students and does not change with gender. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brains of various people have shown that the executive function in a normal person has specific brain activity patterns, which are regulated by age, but not affected by gender differences^[38].

5 Conclusion

This study shows that physical exercises can be used as an effective intervention to improve the knowledge memory process of college students. We provide evidence that physical exercise intervention of different intensities on college students improves their knowledge memory effect process and does not vary with gender. We also provide a practical basis for the selection of a reasonable physical exercise program to improve the process of memory acquisition from the perspectives of exercise intensity and gender. The data of this study is an important basis to design physical exercises that can be integrated into academic curriculum. However, we did not enumerate the effect of the physical exercise duration on the knowledge acquisition process. This is one area where future related studies should focus on. 

Declarations

My manuscripts, including the heading, has not applicable anywhere.To be used for all articles, including articles with biological applications. 

Funding 

This work was supported by the Beijing Social Science Foundation (18YTCO22),.Beijing Municipal Education Commission The general project, (SM202210011001). 

Data availability statement 

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation. If anyone would like data from this study please contact the corresponding author.

Conflict of interest 

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.  

Author contributions 

XL designed and directed the project. KM and JQ verified the analytic methods. JY performed testing and provided data. ZH helped supervise the project.All authors contributed to the article and approved submitted version.

Authors and Affiliations

Xinnan Li, Kai Ma,Zhonghui He,Junwei Qian,Junjian Yang

Xinnan Li :College of P.E and Sports,Beijing Normal University,Haidia District,Beijing,100875,China;School of Physical Education and Art Education ,Beijing Technology and Business University,Haidian District,,Beijing,100048,China   

Kai Ma:China University of Geosciences，Beijing,10083,China

Zhonghui He and Junwei Qian:The department of physical education ,Peking University,Haidian District,100871，Beijing,China

Junjian Yang:School of Physical Education and Art Education ,Beijing Technology and Business University,Haidian District,,Beijing,100048,China   

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