| Description |
Moderate cardiovascular exercise is critical to health, but few participate at a frequency, intensity, and time that will confer a health benefit. Many initiate exercise behavior, but they do not develop an exercise habit. Increased interest has been shown to increase frequency of behavior in boring health related domains. The purpose of this study was to determine if media interactivity influences interest during exercise for participants in the maintenance phase of exercise. Twenty-seven male members of Gold's Gym, ages of 18-40, who started or resumed an exercise routine within the last 6 months were recruited for this study. Participants were randomly assigned to a 20-minute exercise bout under a condition of solitude, low media interactivity (movie watching), or high media interactivity (video-game playing). All exercise bouts were performed in the absence of time cues in order to get a less biased estimate of time passage. The independent variable, media interactivity, was related to scores derived from the Situational Interest Questionnaire (SIQ) and an estimate of time passage. Pairwise comparisons revealed effect sizes between the groups ranging from 0.216 to 0.635. These have been classified as in the medium to large range. Results for the Kruskal-Wallis demonstrated a statistically significant difference in interest as measured by the SIQ across the three groups (Gp1, n=9: solitude, Gp2, n=9: movie watching, and Gp3, n=9: video game playing). χ2 (2, n=27)=10.397, p=.006. The iv video game group recorded the highest median score (Md=19.94), the movie watching group recorded the middle median score (Md=14.17), and the solitude condition recorded the lowest median score (Md=7.89). A higher score is consistent with better self-regulation as higher interest may require less self-regulatory resources. Results for the Kruskal-Wallis demonstrated a statistically significant difference in an estimate of time passage across the three groups (Gp1, n=9: solitude, Gp2, n=9: movie watching, and Gp3, n=9: video game playing). χ2 (2, n=27)=8.246, p=.016. The video game group recorded the lowest median score (Md=9.17), the movie watching group recorded a median score between the two other groups (Md=13.11), and the solitude condition recorded the highest score (Md=19.72). A lower score is consistent with better self-regulation as the time during exercise seemed to pass quickly. |
