A Pilot Study on the Impact of an Undergraduate Physical Education Course on Intellectual Image Formation

Physical Education (PE) is often perceived as less intellectual than other academic subjects in Japan. This study aimed to improve that perception through an undergraduate PE course and to evaluate its impact using a pre-test/post-test experimental design. Fifty sophomore students (25 males and 25 females) voluntarily participated. Perceptions of the intellectuality of PE were assessed before and after the course using two methods: a direct rating on a seven-point scale and a newly developed paper-and-pencil Implicit Association Test (iFUMIE; Hamada & Mori, 2025). While the explicit ratings showed a high intellectual image of PE at pre-test and little change at post-test for both genders, the iFUMIE results indicated a marked improvement among female participants, with only slight gains among males. Possible explanations for these mixed results are discussed in relation to gender differences in social desirability bias and participants’ academic records.