Acute Effects of Aerobic Physical Activities on Attention and Concentration in School-aged Children by Zhonghui He in BJSTR
Abstract
Purpose: It is unknown whether or not a PA intervention can
produce positive effects on students’ attention and concentration late
in the
school day (i.e., afternoon). Thus, the purpose of this study was to
examine the acute effect of 30-min PE lessons on students’ attention and
concentration late in the school day.
Methods: A total of 115 fourth- and fifth-grade students
participated in this study with the mean age of 9.41 years old for
fourth grade
students (n=58) and 10.41 years old for fifth-grade students (n=57). One
fourth-grade class and one fifth-grade class were randomly assigned
to the intervention group, while the other one fourth-grade class and
the other fifth-grade class were randomly assigned to the comparison
group. The intervention took place after all classes attended a 30-min
regular late afternoon academic lesson. The intervention students took
the d2 Test of Attention before and after attending a 30-min aerobic
PA-focused PE lesson, while the comparison students took the d2 Test of
Attention before and after attending a 30-min lecture-typed PE lesson.
The d2 Test is standardized paper and pencil letter-cancellation test
that
measures neuropsychology performance of the students in the areas of
sustained and selective attention as well as concentration.
Results: 2 (pre-test vs. post-test) x 2 (Experimental Group
vs. Comparison Group) ANOVA revealed a significant effect of time, but
no
significant effect of group for processing speed (TN), accuracy (E%),
and concentration (CP). Further, the repeated measures ANOVA indicated
that there was no significant interaction between time × group in TN and
E%, but there was a significant level of the time x group intervention
in CP, close to p< .05.
Conclusion: It was concluded that after participating in both
the 30-min aerobic PA-focused PE lesson and the 30-min interactive
lecturetyped
PE lesson late in the school day, the students had greater improvement
in attention and concentration, compared to after attending the
30-min regular academic lesson.
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