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This is the study of Acute Impact of Ujjayi Yogic Pranayama vs Aerobic Exercise on Cognitive Performance and Short Term Memory. The purpose of this research was to compare two forms of exercise and their effects on someone's cognitive performance and short term memory. The research was performed in an acute setting were both exercises was conducted in under 15 minutes of active participation. The research question was; will aerobic exercise or the Pranayama breathing exercise provide better results and demonstrate a more effective way to increase the cognitive performance and short term memory for a college student aged 18-30. This was accomplished by using an aerobic exercise on an elliptical machine and then participating in the breathing exercise for 10 minutes in both scenarios. This study had two scenarios. Each scenario had a preliminary cognitive performance and short-term memory, post-Ujjayi exercise had a cognitive performance and short-term memory and a post-aerobic exercise had a cognitive performance and short-term memory. There was an hour break between Ujjayi exercise and aerobic exercise in both scenarios to prevent any type of bias. Scenario 1 had these three settings but the students were not given a breakfast supplement. In Scenario 2 the students were given a break supplement and followed the same procedures as scenario 1. There were 25 students for scenario 1 and 25 students for scenario 2. The students were allowed to participate in scenario 1 and 2 but it had to be a week after their first participation. All participants were originally signed up for scenario 1 and they could come back to perform scenario 2 a week later. The first scenario was completing the tests in the absence of food. Scenario two was completing the tests after having been given a Clif Bar to consume. The results of both of these scenarios showed that for cognitive performance and short term memory aerobic exercise had a beneficial impact on their performance. However, students who had a breakfast performed better on the preliminary tests and scored better after the yogic Ujjayi Pranayama exercise on their cognitive performance and short term memory tests. There was also a negligible difference between the test results after the preliminary tests and yogic Ujjayi Pranayama. However, in scenario one the overall tests scores for preliminary and yogic Ujjayi Pranayama were less than those in scenario two. Students who recorded that they were more actively engaging in regular physical exercise 3-7 days a week also did worse in scenario 1, but when presented with scenario 2 they scored equal with those who did not perform regular exercise. The overall purpose for this research was to find out how to increase cognitive performance and short term memory ability in college age students 18-30 in a short amount of time. The results of this study will be impactful for the future studies that will be focused on when comparing aerobic exercise and yogic pranayama.
ContributorsKopecky, Zachary (Co-author) / Enright, Roan (Co-author) / McILwraith, Heide (Thesis director) / Lee, Rebecca (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05