Dr. and Professor Olga Berwid is seeking volunteers for her study on The Acute Impact of Exercise on Impulsivity in Healthy young adults. Her study involves participants to undergo a body composition assessment, fitness assessment on treadmill, psychological exam, and 40 minutes of stationary bicycling.
Dr. Berwid along with Dr. Wieber Zion started collecting data in the Spring of 2016 with a goal of receiving 150 participants. Lacking the required participant numbers draws out their study to beyond this year with further drawbacks.
“We are trying to look at a construct that hasn’t developed fully” said Dr. Berwid.
Their study analyzes how exercise benefits the factors that encourages self control. The retention of information and educational material is said to become better effective with exercise. Factors that often discourage focus includes individual impulsivity.
Understanding Impulsivity asks for a knowledge on Inhibitory control and Enablers. When often faced with a choice, the brain sends messages that ultimately makes an decisions. Actions that includes habitual behavior which involves unconscious decision making.
“Similar thing when we go on a diet right? When you go on a diet, you have to have the same control to say no to the cupcake when someone hands it to you at a birthday party, it’s really tough. Easier to start to stay on a diet when the cupcake isn’t in front of your face though right? It’s easier to study when your friends are sitting around you and they’re saying lets go, lets go” said Dr. Berwid.
The acute analysis of participant’s decision making skills is meant to narrow their findings to a limited amount of time. Dr. Berwid intends on using one session of exercise to identify the delay of gratification after exercise.
York College students who want to contribute to this study must be 18-30 years-old, exhibit no medical conditions interfering with high intensity exercise, and fluency in english. Dr. Berwid can be reached through email @YorkExerciseStudy@gmail.com or through the York College Research Pool.