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.¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Closed-skill (agility circuit) exercise improved STM at post-test in children aged 9–10 (p = 0.046) but showed no effect in children aged 7–8. → Ottoboni Giovanni 2021 (2)

Evidence¶

Ottoboni Giovanni 2021¶

Ottoboni Giovanni, Ceciliani Andrea, Tessari Alessia. (2021). The Effect of Structured Exercise on Short-Term Memory Subsystems: New Insight on Training Activities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147545

q3 · i? · causal · r2

In the 125-child three-group school experiment, the closed-skill agility circuit condition showed no improvement in the younger group, "no effect of both closed-skill and control activities (p > 0.05)".

"in the group aged 7–8 years, we found a positive effect of the open-skill exercise with a better performance at T1, post-exercise retest (one-tailed corrected t-test, t(22) = 3.86, p < 0.001), but no effect of both closed-skill and control activities (p > 0.05)."

Ottoboni Giovanni 2021 (2)¶

Ottoboni Giovanni, Ceciliani Andrea, Tessari Alessia. (2021). The Effect of Structured Exercise on Short-Term Memory Subsystems: New Insight on Training Activities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147545

q3 · i? · causal · r2

In the older group of the same experiment, the closed-skill circuit produced a positive effect at post-exercise retest, "t(21) = 1.76, p = 0.046". The authors note this is the first demonstration that closed-skill activity may benefit STM abilities.

"On the contrary, in older children (aged 9–10 years) we found a positive effect of both open-skill activity (one-tailed corrected t-test, t(20) = 2.68, p = 0.007) and closed-skill activity (one-tailed t-test, t(21) = 1.76, p = 0.046) on the cognitive performance at T1, post-exercise retest, but no improvement in the control condition (p > 0.05)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• 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
• The effect of a single exercise bout on children's short-term memory depends on an interaction of time, age, and exercise type. — a broader claim this one bears on
• A sedentary control condition (Italian grammar lesson) produces no improvement in children's short-term memory performance at either age. — related
• Age may moderate acute PA effects on attention: effects appeared for 9–10 year olds but not 7–8 year olds — related
• Short-term memory task profiles differ by age: 7–8-year-olds show no verbal–spatial difference, while 9–10-year-olds show a verbal > visuo-spatial > motor gradient. — related
• Anthropomorphic explanations appear in older children but less frequently, with only a minority of 14-year-olds' fuse explanations anthropomorphic — related
• Training effects on spatial language comprehension and verbal number skills tended to appear in younger rather than older children — related