Research Article A Study of the Effects of Daily Physical Activity on Memory and Attention Capacities in College Students Dinh-Van Phan , 1,2,3 Chien-Lung Chan , 1,2 Ren-Hao Pan, 1,2 Nan-Ping Yang , 4,5 Hsiu-Chen Hsu, 1,2 Hsien-Wei Ting, 1,6 and K. Robert Lai 7 1 Department of Information Management, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan, Taiwan 2 Innovation Center for Big Data and Digital Convergence, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan, Taiwan 3 University of Economics, The University of Danang, Danang, Vietnam 4 Department of Surgery & Orthopedics, Keelung Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Keelung, Taiwan 5 Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 6 Department of Neurosurgery, Taipei Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, New Taipei City, Taiwan 7 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Yuan Ze University, Taoyuan, Taiwan Correspondence should be addressed to Chien-Lung Chan; clchan@saturn.yzu.edu.tw Received 11 October 2017; Revised 16 January 2018; Accepted 12 February 2018; Published 22 March 2018 Academic Editor: Yi Su Copyright © 2018 Dinh-Van Phan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This study evaluated the relationship between daily physical activity (DPA) and memory capacity, as well as the association between daily activity and attention capacity, in college students in Taiwan. Participants (mean age = 20.79) wore wearable trackers for 106 days in order to collect DPA. These data were analyzed in association with their memory and attention capacities, as assessed using the spatial span test (SST) and the trail making test (TMT). The study showed significant negative correlations between memory capacity, time spent on the attention test (TSAT), calories burnt, and very active time duration (VATD) on the day before testing (r = -0 272, r = -0 176, r =0 289, r =0 254, resp.) and during the week prior to testing (r = -0 364, r = -0 395, r =0 268, r =0 241, resp.). The calories burnt and the VATD per day thresholds, which at best discriminated between normal-to-good and low attention capacity, were ≥2283 calories day -1 , ≥20 minutes day -1 of very high activity (VHA) on the day before testing, or ≥13,640 calories week -1 , ≥76 minutes week -1 of VHA during the week prior to testing. Findings indicated the short-term effects that VATD and calories burnt on the day before or during the week before testing significantly and negatively associated with memory and attention capacities of college students. 1. Introduction Many studies have demonstrated that daily activity affects the physical and mental health of humans [1–6]. Therefore, from kindergarten to universities worldwide, physical education study or fitness events are held to improve student health and increase their learning efficiency. However, the search for strategies to improve health and increase study or work efficiency is laden with difficulties; there is a need to examine several, possibly interacting factors such as sex, age, environ- ment, and living conditions, as well as examine historical data and investigate useful technologies. Today, as quality of life has improved, people increas- ingly pay more attention to their personal health and personal development in order to enhance their life and improve their efficiency in terms of learning and work [7]. In conjunction, the development of mobile devices has also affected the lives of human beings. For example, special high-tech wearable equipment with sensors that can accu- rately collect information about human daily activity have increased in popularity and are now used widely. This has created an opportunity to study human activity more easily and accurately. The development of mobile technologies that utilize the Internet has brought people closer together; the Hindawi Journal of Healthcare Engineering Volume 2018, Article ID 2942930, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/2942930