Resumo

GAVOTTO NOGALES, Omar Iván; BERNAL REYES, Fernando  e  VEGA OROZCO, Saúl Ignacio. Cognitive Ability and Physical Fitness in Students of Physical Culture of a Public University in Northwestern Mexico. RIDE. Rev. Iberoam. Investig. Desarro. Educ [online]. 2019, vol.9, n.18, pp.129-152. ISSN 2007-7467.  https://doi.org/10.23913/ride.v9i18.415.

The healthy human being maintains a biopsychosocial balance. Physical and mental health are closely linked and impact on productivity, functionality and adaptability to daily demands. It is expected that the interrelation of the different human dimensions will manifest proportionally, that is, to greater physical health, greater intellectual capacity or vice versa. This study starts from the assumption that people who exercise regularly can enjoy greater health and register a greater cognitive or mental performance than people who do not exercise regularly.

The main objective of this research was to describe the relationship between the cognitive dimension and the physical dimension in students of the Degree in Physical Culture and Sports of a public university in northwestern Mexico to know the psychophysical characteristics of students and to propose strategies educational programs adapted to their level of maturity, seeking to enhance their performance and school achievement.

The design of the research is non-experimental with a quantitative approach. A battery was applied several cognitive and physical tests to 90 students of the third semester to obtain a global indicator of the physical dimension and four indicators were collected that constituted the cognitive dimension. The variables were crossed to obtain the Pearson correlation coefficient, verifying its statistical significance. In both sexes, a statistically significant positive relationship was found between the variables of general intelligence obtained with the Domino Test and the Exhcoba Test, which is used as a filter for admission to the university, and a positive correlation was found between abdominal variables and horizontal jump.

The heterogeneity of the population studied is highlighted with respect to their habits for physical exercise and the development of cognitive abilities. Finally, it is concluded that the existence of a sexual dimorphism establishes marked differences between the sexes, however, no significant correlation was found between the physical dimension and the cognitive dimension. The results suggest that it is the appropriation of the culture, the educability of the human being, which will promote greater cognitive and physical development.

Palavras-chave : cognitive ability; physical capacity; physical education; students; university.