Article: Classroom-Based Physical Activity Breaks and Children’s Attention: Cognitive Engagement Works!
Authors: Mirko Schmidt, Valentin Benzing, Mario Kamer
Participants: 98 fifth grade students at an elementary school in Switzerland
Intervention: there were 4 different experimental conditions:
- Combo Group: for 5 minutes, the students had to touch numbers 1-18 around the classroom in ascending order.
- Cognition Group:for 5 minutes, students worked on a trail making paper and pencil test that required them to draw lines connecting number 1-91 in ascending order.
- Physical Group: for 10 minutes, students pretended to be cars and ran around the room.
- Control Group: students remained at their desks and listened to a 10 minute age appropriate story.
Experimental Design: between subjects design
Results: The results showed that the student who engaged in the cognitive enhancement breaks scored better on tests of attentiveness that other groups.