Previous studies have shown that aerobic exercise enhances divergent thinking, but only two have explored this in natural environments. Those studies, involving walking and aerobic games, focused solely on divergent thinking without assessing convergent thinking.
This study recruited medical students in their twenties, excluding those with psychiatric conditions or prior participation in similar studies. Participants were asked to refrain from intense activities, smoking, or caffeine consumption before testing. Baseline mood was measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and subjects were randomly assigned to two conditions on separate test days: walking up and down stairs or taking the elevator.
For the stair-climbing condition, participants walked from the fourth floor to the first and back. In the control condition, they followed the same path using the elevator. After each intervention, participants completed tests to measure divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking was........