Patterns of attentional and recognition-memory processing of emotional information among Chinese middle school students with different exercise volumes.

Of 300 questionnaires distributed, 291 valid responses were used to screen students by exercise volume, and 60 students (30 per group) from the extreme high and low ends were recruited for the behavioral experiment.

• Exercise volume was measured with a modified 3-month-recall version of the Physical Activity Rating Scale-3 (PARS-3).
• Participants were recruited by convenience sampling at one middle school.
• The design was cross-sectional with an extreme-group contrast.

In the dot-probe task, the Group × Valence interaction on reaction time was significant, with the low-exercise-volume group responding faster to negative than to positive pictures.

• The dot-probe task measured reaction time, probe congruency, and vigilance and disengagement/avoidance indices for positive and negative emotional pictures.
• The faster response to negative than positive pictures was reported for the low-exercise-volume group.
• The abstract describes the group differences as arising primarily in overall reaction time.

The Group × Valence interaction for the attentional disengagement/avoidance index was significant, with the low-exercise-volume group showing a larger positive-picture disengagement/avoidance index.

• This pattern is described as consistent with greater difficulty disengaging attention from positive pictures in the low-exercise-volume group.
• The index is a derived measure computed from the dot-probe reaction times.

In the learning-recognition task, Group × Valence interactions were significant for both recognition sensitivity (d') and recognition accuracy.

• The task assessed recognition of positive and negative faces.
• The accuracy analysis showed a within-group valence difference corresponding to that seen for d'.

The low-exercise-volume group showed lower d' for positive than for negative faces, and its d' for positive faces was lower than that of the high-exercise-volume group.

• This indicates reduced recognition sensitivity for positive faces in the low-exercise-volume group.
• The within-group valence difference was mirrored in the accuracy analysis.

The Group × Valence interaction for response criterion (c) was not significant.

• The differences in recognition were therefore in sensitivity (d') rather than response bias (c).

Overall, exercise volume was associated with emotional information processing in adolescents, but the extreme-group design means effects are not population-level estimates.

• The behavioral sample came from the extreme ends of the screening distribution, so group differences and effect sizes characterize selected extreme-group contrasts, not typical high- versus low-exercise adolescents.
• The cross-sectional design precludes causal inference; longitudinal and experimental studies are needed.