1 Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada.
2 Department of Kinesiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
3 Department of Exercise Science, Elon University, Elon, NC, USA.
4 Department of Kinesiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA; Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. Electronic address: pontifex@msu.edu.

Purpose: The purpose of the present investigation was to determine the extent to which individuals at the extremes of the aerobic fitness continuum differed in their utilization of arithmetic strategies.

Method: Using a cross-sectional design, 37 higher aerobically fit and 37 lower aerobically fit participants completed a complex arithmetic task while neuroelectric measures were concurrently recorded. The arithmetic task had participants view a pair of sequentially presented two-digit operands and determine if the sum was greater than or <100 which manipulated the utilization of exact and approximate arithmetic strategies.

Results: Individuals with higher aerobic fitness demonstrated a greater tendency to utilize more efficient approximate arithmetic strategies as the sums grew more distant from 100 in contrast to their lower aerobic fitness counterparts, indexed using a composite measure of behavioral and neuroelectric data.

Conclusion: Superior aerobic fitness relates to a greater ability to shift between procedural strategies for arithmetic problems.