Age may moderate acute PA effects on attention: effects appeared for 9–10 year olds but not 7–8 year olds¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2014 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Caterino and Polak (1999) found a significant PA effect only for 9–10 year old children and none for 7–8 year olds, suggesting age influences outcomes. → Janssen M 2014

Evidence¶

Janssen M 2014¶

Janssen M, Toussaint HM, van Mechelen W, Verhagen EALM. (2014). Effects of acute bouts of physical activity on children's attention: a systematic review of the literature. SpringerPlus. https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-3-410

q2 · i? · review · r3

Review's discussion of Caterino & Polak (1999), a school experiment with 177 children aged 7–10 using the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Concentration after 15-min stretching or aerobic walking; significant only for 9–10 year olds (p = 0.05).

"Caterino and Polak (1999) found significant effect of PA only for 9 – 10 year old children, no effects were found for 7– 8 years old children, indicating the differences in out- comes between ages and the difficulty in comparing the various included studies."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Attention — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Evidence for effects of acute bouts of physical activity on children's attention is weak and inconclusive — related
• School-setting studies show no overall significant difference between active and classroom lessons, but subgroup effects emerge — related
• Age moderates exercise effects in opposite directions: adolescents benefit more for inhibitory control, younger children more for working memory — related
• Type of PA may moderate acute effects: coordinative exercises outperformed a normal PE lesson of the same intensity — related
• Five of six laboratory studies found significant effects of acute PA on cognitive control of attention, mainly on accuracy not reaction time — related
• A single bout of closed-skill exercise improves short-term memory performance only in older primary-school children (9–10 years), not in 7–8-year-olds. — related
• Acute moderate aerobic exercise speeds children's reaction times without improving accuracy, with greater speed gains on choice than simple reaction time tasks — related
• Acute physical activity has a positive effect on attention in preadolescent children (g = 0.43) — related
• A single bout of open-skill exercise improves short-term memory performance in primary-school children of both age groups (7–8 and 9–10 years). — related
• Anthropomorphic explanations appear in older children but less frequently, with only a minority of 14-year-olds' fuse explanations anthropomorphic — related
• The effect of a single exercise bout on children's short-term memory depends on an interaction of time, age, and exercise type. — related
• Physical activity, including brief aerobic exercise sessions, improves children's selective attention — related
• Feedback features shift with age: scaffolds (prompts, audio, physical demonstrations) cluster in ages 3-7 while written and paper-based feedback appears only from age 8 — related