Exploring the Effects of Long-Term Physical Exercise on Persistent and Inhibitory Self-Control：Quasi-Experimental Research

Linjing Cheng ¹ Huahui Qin ² Yin Yang ^2* Junhua Dang ^3,4*

• ¹ Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
• ² Beijing Sport University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
• ³ Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
• ⁴ Uppsala University, Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden

This study aims to explore the effects of long-term physical exercise on different types of self-control, with a focus on persistent and inhibitory self-control. Two experiments were conducted using dual-task paradigms. In Experiment 1, the E-crossing task served as the depletion task, and the grip task was used to measure persistent selfcontrol. Results indicated that long-term exercisers exhibited significantly better persistent self-control than non-exercisers, F(1, 54) = 6.55, p = .013, ƞp 2 = 0.11.Experiment 2 employed the Stroop task as the detection task to measure inhibitory selfcontrol. No significant differences were found between the exercise and non-exercise groups in inhibitory self-control performance. These findings suggest that long-term physical exercise may enhance persistent self-control, but its effects on inhibitory selfcontrol remain unclear. The study addresses potential confounding factors, such as taskspecific effects and baseline performance differences, and highlights the need for future research to explore diverse self-control tasks and establish causal relationships. The results contribute to the understanding of self-control training and provide insights into the domain-specific effects of physical exercise on self-control.