The use of walking workstations in educational and work settings has been shown to improve cognitive abilities. At the same time, it has been repeatedly shown that medical residents around the world do not meet exercise guidelines, mainly due to a scarcity of available free time. Our study investigates the boundaries of the previously observed phenomenon of improved cognitive performance with physical activity using materials that represent real life tasks. Participants had different level of expertise and involved second year psychology students, medical students, and family medicine residents. We examined the effect of being physically inactive (i.e., sitting) or active (i.e., walking) while diagnosing multiple complex presentations of four skin conditions. We assumed that being physically active, irrespective of the level of expertise, will bolster diagnostic performance. Our findings show, however, that being physically active does not change the performance level of participants with different levels of medical expertise. Implications for medical education and suggestions for further research will be discussed.

中文翻译：

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步行是否可以改善对不同医学专业水平的皮肤病的诊断？

在教育和工作环境中使用步行工作站已被证明可以提高认知能力。同时，一再表明，世界各地的住院医师不符合锻炼指南，主要是由于可用空闲时间稀缺。我们的研究使用代表现实生活任务的材料调查了先前观察到的通过身体活动改善认知能力的现象的界限。参与者具有不同水平的专业知识，包括二年级心理学学生、医学生和家庭医学住院医师。我们在诊断四种皮肤状况的多种复杂表现时，检查了身体不活动（即坐着）或活动（即步行）的影响。我们假设身体活跃，无论专业水平如何，将提高诊断性能。然而，我们的研究结果表明，身体活动不会改变具有不同医学专业知识水平的参与者的表现水平。将讨论对医学教育的影响和对进一步研究的建议。