Five of six laboratory studies found significant effects of acute PA on cognitive control of attention, mainly on accuracy not reaction time¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2014 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Five of six laboratory studies found a significant effect on cognitive control of attention; three showed significant accuracy improvement with no reaction-time improvement. → 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 · r2
Review's synthesis of the six laboratory studies (treadmill or ergometer bouts around 60% HRmax, flanker or visual attention tasks). Reports "Five of the six la- boratory studies found a significant effect on cognitive control of attention."
"Five of the six la- boratory studies found a significant effect on cognitive control of attention. One laboratory study (Cereatti et al. 2009) found a significant improvement in reaction time, one study showed a maintenance of accuracy of task (Drollette et al. 2012) and three studies showed a signifi- cant improvement on accuracy on the task and not on reaction time"
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
- Type of PA may moderate acute effects: coordinative exercises outperformed a normal PE lesson of the same intensity — related
- Age may moderate acute PA effects on attention: effects appeared for 9–10 year olds but not 7–8 year olds — related
- Duration and intensity of PA bouts may moderate attention effects, consistent with an inverted-U hypothesis — related
- Acute moderate aerobic exercise speeds children's reaction times without improving accuracy, with greater speed gains on choice than simple reaction time tasks — reports the opposite
- Exercise intensity differentially moderates acute exercise cognitive benefits, with moderate intensity favoring executive functions and high intensity favoring information processing — related
- School-setting studies show no overall significant difference between active and classroom lessons, but subgroup effects emerge — related
- Null Flanker effects under ecologically realistic exercise constrain claims of broad, generalized enhancement of executive control — reports the opposite
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
laboratory-studies-acute-pa-attention-accuracy |
title |
Five of six laboratory studies found significant effects of acute PA on cognitive control of attention, mainly on accuracy not reaction time |
description |
Five of six laboratory studies found significant effects of acute PA on cognitive control of attention, mainly on accuracy not reaction time |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2014 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-17 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — janssen-m-2014 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.