Background: The inconsistent results of the studies on whether acute exercise can improve working memory and the small effect sizes of meta-analysis indicate that there may be some moderating variables affecting the intensity of the relationship between acute exercise and working memory. This research examined the effects of different intensity acute exercise on the two types of working memory.

Methods: Seventy-eight low active college students aged 18 to 22 years were selected and randomly assigned to four groups. The low-intensity group (n=19), moderate-intensity group (n=19) and high-intensity group (n=19) completed 30-min cycle ergometer exercise bouts separately at the intensity of 40%, 60% and 80% of Vo2max, while the control group (n=21) read for 30-min. The delayed match-to-sample test was used to test verbal and spatial working memory after the intervention.

Results: On response time and accuracy, the main effects of acute exercise intensity and working memory type were significant (p<0.05), and the interaction effect of acute exercise intensity and working memory type was significant (p<0.05).

Conclusions: Acute exercise can improve verbal and spatial working memory, while the moderate intensity of acute exercise has the best effect. Compared with verbal working memory, the effect of acute exercise on spatial working memory is greater.