Exercise caution: some methodological and theoretical considerations when examining improvements in attentional selectivity following exercise.

Abstract

Numerous studies investigating the effects of a given laboratory or field intervention on attentional selectivity have evidenced their (positive) findings with improved performance in the Stroop task. In contrast to conclusions drawn in these studies, the present paper argues that the extent to which this improvement actually reflects an attentional/inhibitory boost is still relatively unknown. To evidence this claim, this paper first delimited conditions under which Stroop performance indicators can directly measure selective attention and its changes. It then assessed the use of these indicators in a specific and exemplary body of translational research investigating the link (correlational or causal) between physical activity/exercise and attentional selectivity with a result that only nine past studies (out of 52) actually used relevant indicators of physical activity/exercise-related changes in selective attention. The narrative review of these nine studies highlighted a substantial gap between what this body of research shows and the conclusions it draws. To mitigate this gap that is likely to concern all types of research aimed at boosting attentional selectivity, the paper also provided practical guidelines to allow future studies employing the Stroop task to draw more theoretically and empirically grounded inferences about the effects of any intervention on attentional selectivity.