The Effect of Bicycling on Long Term Memory

Unun Umaran

1,2

, Adang Suherman

, Herman Subarjah

and Mohammad Zaky

1,3

Faculty of Sport and Health Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia

Physical Education, Health and Recreation, Universitas Islam 45 Bekasi, Bekasi, Indonesia

Physical Education, Health and Recreation, STKIP Bina Mutiara Sukabumi, Sukabumi, Indonesia

ununumaran@upi.edu

Keywords: Bicycling Activity, Long Term Memory.

Abstract: The research was done because some theories say physical activity is able to give a positive influence on

cognitive function. Lack of motion or not performing physical activity may lead to memory degeneration

(dementia). The method used was Ex Post Facto. The sample was 30 bike to work community members

aged 20 to 35 years old. Purposive sampling technique was used to choose the sample. The main

Instrument was Word Test. The data analysis was performed in SPSS 17 by which the researcher carried out

Kolmogorov-Smirnov for normal distribution test, Lavene Statistic for Homogeneity test and Independent

sample test to see the score differences. The results showed that the average score of cycling group ability

was better than motor group (control). It was confirmed by the result of the analysis showing that long term

memory ability was 75,53 Vs 63,97 and t = 2,996 (0,004) (p<0,05), meaning that there is significant

different between long term memory of cycling group and riding group. It implies that cycling activities

have positive impact on the long term memory.

1 INTRODUCTION

Health is a factor that is very supportive for daily

activities. Doing regular physical activity is the most

important thing that can help a person maintain good

health. The phenomenon that occurs at the present

time especially for the adult, they are busy with

work routine experiencing lack of physical activity

due to routine work. Thus, of course, it will result in

physical fatigue and may also lead to memory

fatigue. There are several assumptions that if it is not

offset by physical activity, cognitive ability will

decrease. This is in accordance with the opinion of

Manoux, et al (2005); in his research on the

relationship between physical activity and cognitive

function in middle age i.e. all 35-55-year-old state

employees based in London department, suggested

that the lack of physical activity is a risk factor for

cognitive function decline, our results show small

but significant the relationship between physical

activity and cognitive function in middle age. Age

and sex adapted to the relationship between physical

activity and cognitive performance are greatly

attenuated by in addition to education and

socioeconomics. Aspects of cognitive function that

mostly decline with age are intelligence (as

estimated with AH 4-I), and our results show that

low levels of physical exercise have been a risk

factor in middle age. The fluid of intelligence is

considered essentially related to the information

process and involves short-term memory, abstract

thinking, creativity, problem-solving ability, and

reaction time. Our results of physical activity and

cognitive function show the protective effect of

physical activity on cognitive decline and dementia

among the elderly. Physical activity has been shown

to maintain cerebral blood flow, and may increase

aerobic capacity and supply of brain nutrients.

Physical activity is also believed to facilitate the

metabolism of neurotransmitters.

Furthermore, Zervas and Stambulova in Auweele

et al. (1999) assume the relation between physical

activities and cognitive function. It was believed that

the impact of physical activities on cognitive

function mostly rely on the intensity and volume of

the physical activities. The intensity of lower-to-

moderate physical training tends to support the

assertion that a physical limb facilitates cognitive

functioning.

440

Umaran, U., Suherman, A., Subarjah, H. and Zaky, M.

The Effect of Bicycling on Long Term Memory.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education (ICSSHPE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 440-443

ISBN: 978-989-758-317-9

In addition, Jhon and Eric (2008): By doing

physical activity, it will happen oxygen-filled blood

supply into the brain. This will stimulate the growth

of new cells in the brain so that the brain cells will

multiply and with the number of new cells will form

new neurons that have more synapses that will

eventually make the brain capable of receiving more

impulse and able to store longer and faster to be

reappeared when asked. In addition to the growth of

many new cells, another impact is to grow and

develop a type of protein in the brain that is called

the Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF). The

function of BDNF itself is to build and maintain the

cells in the brain of the Hippocampus, the part of the

brain associated with the brain's ability to receive

and store information obtained, in other words the

hippocampus is related to the quality of the brain's

memory work. With the abundance of BDNF in the

hippocampus, the memory capacity of the brain gets

better and last longer.

So it is clear that physical activity can affect

memory performance. Conversely, if the lack of

movement in this case does not do physical activity

due to unhealthy lifestyles, will cause a decrease in

memory performance of a person. From some of

these findings, it can be raised a problem that the

high demands of work that require good body

condition should be supported by a healthy lifestyle

that is by doing physical activity one of them is by

cycling. This problem is raised because there is no

empirical data concerning research aimed at people

already working, requiring memory work demands

especially in the productive age between the ages of

20 to 35 years.

Lately there has been a b2w community called

Bike to Work, which raised the popularity of

bicycles as motor vehicle replacement vehicles to go

to the office. There is an interesting phenomenon

that can be studied in this bike to work community.

For office workers, cycling not only makes life

healthier, but it is also believed to help to refresh

one's memory. This is in accordance with that

disclosed by Holmann in tieneke (2008) in his

research revealed, that the youth (students) who

exercise cycling is known to have blood flow to the

brain increased 30%. The increased blood flow in

the brain will trigger the brain to release some

proteins, including a kind of brain-growing protein

called Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF)

that causes the growth of new nerve cells in the

working hippocampus saves memory for a long time

and minimizes the occurrence of concussions.

Given this BDNF growth, the cycling students are

relatively faster and better at completing the test

than the students who are not cycling.

The human memory system has two forms; short

term memory and long term memory. Short-term

memory has a role as a place to store memories that

are only temporary or in other words that

information can be remembered after a few minutes

of noticing and memorizing. While Long-term

memory, is part of the human brain that has the task

of storing memory for a long period of time. Long-

term memory is considered necessary for someone,

this is because it will be stored in the brain and will

make someone remember it with the old and make

the process of motion that automation.

Based on the above explanation, the focus of

research conducted is to describe the effect of

cycling activity on the ability of long term memory

for the perpetrators.

2 METHODS

The method used in this research was ex-post facto

study in intact-group comparison. The method

focuses more on comparative study. The aim of ex

post facto research is to see the effect of certain

phenomena and examine the causal effect of the data

after the event has been completed.

2.1 Research Design

To provide an overview of the flow of thought in

this study the authors provide a description of a

research design that the authors use in figure 1.

Figure 1: Research Design.

2.2 Population and Sample

In this study the authors take a population of bike-to-

work members (active bike to work) Bandung as

Independent Dependent

Group variable variable

I C

(Group possesses (Measurement)

characteristic I)

II C

(Group possesses (Measurement)

characteristic II)

The Effect of Bicycling on Long Term Memory

441

many as 128 people. The sample was 30 people. The

amount is based on the results of categorizing the

sample in accordance with the characteristics of the

study. While for comparison, the authors use the

control group (using motor vehicles) as many as 30

people, and the number is based on the

categorization of the determination criteria similar to

the sample studied.

2.3 Research Instrument

The instrument used to obtain the capability data of

long term memory is used as a test remembers the

word or called “Word Test”. The instrument was

adopted from Miller (1956) in “The Magical 7+2”.

The research procedure was listed as follows:

 The sample is shown 15 words (not

interconnected), to be memorized for 1.5

minutes;

 After 1.5 minutes, the sample is required to

rewrite the words shown;

 The number of words that can be written

correctly, describes the ability of long term

memory of the sample.

2.4 Data Analysis Technique

The data was analyzed through the following steps:

 Choosing 30 people as the sample, in this case

bike-to-work community in Bandung and the

control group is those who ride motorcycle to

work;

 Testing instrument validity and reliability;

 Testing data homogeneity and normal

distribution;

 Testing differences by comparing the long

term memory test result from experimental

and control group. The test was carried out to

identify if there is significant effect of

bicycling activity and long term memory;

 The statistical computation was carried out

through SPSS 17.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS

After the test had been done, the next step was to

perform the data analysis to generate the

interpretation.

Table 1: Long Term Memory Data Description.

Sample

Group

Means

Standard

Deviation

Variance

Lowest

Score

Highest

Score

Bicycling

75,53

15,34

235,36

100

Control

Riding

63,97

14,55

211,69

From the description in table 1, it was shown

that the means of bicycling group has higher long

term memory capability than those riding

motorcycle. It can be assumed that groups using

bicycles are better in terms of long term memory

compared to motorcycle groups.

The first step taken before testing the hypothesis

is to test the normality, the result is as follows table

Table 2: Skill Data Normal Distribution Test Result Long

term memory.

Tests of Normality

Control

Kolmogorov-Smirnov

Shapiro-Wilk

Statistic

Sig.

Statistic

Sig.

Long

term

memory

Bicycling

.148

.093

.949

.158

Riding

.133

.188

.957

.255

a. Lilliefors Significance Correction

*. This is a lower bound of the true significance.

The sig. value for the cycling group based on

Kolmogorov Smirnov was 0,093 which is higher

than 0,05. Similarly, the motorcycle group has sig.

value 0,188 which is higher than 0,05. It means that

if the probability or sig. value is higher than 0,05 it

can be deduced that the data are normally

distributed. Based on the analysis, the data from

both groups are normally distributed.

After the normal distribution, the homogeneity test

was then carried out. The result was presented as

follows table 3:

Table 3: Homogeneity Test Result.

Test of Homogeneity of Variance

Levene Statistic

df1

df2

Sig.

Long_term_

Memory

Based on Means

.087

.769

Based on Median

.045

.832

The probability value (Sig.) For long term

memory based on the average value is 0.769 and

greater than 0.05 and based on the median

(midpoint) probability (Sig.) Is 0.832 and greater

than 0.05. Referring to the decision criteria, it can be

concluded that long term memory data for cycling

groups and motor groups have the same variance,

meaning the research data is Homogeneous.

ICSSHPE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education

442

Thus, the test for long term memory data of

cycling group and motor group can use parametric

statistical test because the data is normal and

homogeneous distributed.

Further data obtained are calculated by using

different test to determine the effect or difference

between the ability of long term memory group

cycling with the control group. Testing was done by

comparing the mean (t) value between the cycling

group and the control group. The result was

presented as follows table 4:

Table 4: Different Test Result Long Term Memory Skill

of control group and bicycling group.

Lavene Test

for

Homogeneity

of Variance

t-test

Means

Description

Sig.

(2-tailed)

Long

term

memory

The Variance

is deemed

Homogenous

0,087

0,769

2,996

0,004

Significant

The Variance

is deemed not

Homogenous

2,996

57,838

0,004

Significant

The F observed value for long term memory was

0,087 with probability (Sig.) 0,769. Because (Sig.)

0,769 > 0,05, Ho was accepted. The variants are not

different significantly. In conclusion that the

variance of long-term memory capability between

cycling and control groups is the same or not

significantly different. Thus, for the mean test (t)

refers to the values in the same row column

assumption variance. The t observed value for long

term memory was 2,996 with probability (Sig.)

0,004. Because (Sig.) 0,004 < 0,05, Ho was rejected.

There is a significant influence between Long term

memory cycling with the control group. Based on

the results of the processing, it can be concluded

that, cycling activity has a positive effect on the

ability of Long term memory.

Based on the results of the processing, it can be

concluded that, cycling activity has a positive effect

on the ability of Long term memory. Thus cycling

activities not only provide a positive effect for body

fitness alone but also to improve the function of the

brain especially related to the quality of brain

memory.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of processing and data analysis

has been done by the author, it can be concluded

from the results of research. It is based on facts and

the existing data that the authors obtained. The

conclusion is that cycling activities can affect the

ability of long term memory. This is evidenced by

the long term memory capabilities of the cycling

group is better than the ability of long term memory

groups that use motorcycles (control).

REFERENCES

Auweele, Y. V., Bakker, F., Biddle, S., Durand, M.,

Seiler, R., 1999. Psychology for Physical Educators,

Human Kinetics. Champaign, Illinois.

Jhon, J. R., Eric, H., 2008. SPARK: The Revolutionary

New Sciene of Exercise and the Brain, Little, Brown

and Company. NewYork.

Manoux, S. A., Hillsdon, M., Brunner, E., Marmot, M.,

2005. Effects of physical activity on cognitive

functioning in middle age: evidence from the

Whitehall II prospective cohort study. American

journal of public health. 95(12), 2252-2258.

Miller, G. A., 1956. The Magical Number Seven. The

Psychological review. 63:81-97.

Tieneke, A., 2008. Meningkatkan kecerdasan Anak

dengan Olahraga, Multiply. Tieneke & Family.

[online] available at: http://www.tieneke.com/ [26

September 2008.

The Effect of Bicycling on Long Term Memory

443