Effect of an 8-week programme of active breaks between classes on cognitive variables in secondary school

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim was to determine the effect of an 8-week programme of active breaks on memory, attention-concentration, mathematical calculation, linguistic reasoning and creativity in adolescent students. One-hundred-sixty-two adolescents (12.27 ± 0.47 years; range = 12 13 years) participated in this study. The intervention was based on four daily active breaks of 4 minutes each at moderate-high intensity (controlled with pulsometry). To analyse the effect of 8 weeks of active breaks, we utilised repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with two groups (control group and experimental group) × two times (pre and post). Each cognitive measure was used as a dependent variable, the group was the fixed factor and age, body mass index, hours of daily study and physical activity were covariates. The results showed that the programme increased attention by 11.7% (p < .001), concentration by 10.9% (p = .002) and mathematical calculation by 13.1% (p = .015). We suggest including 4 minutes of this kind of active breaks to improve important school variables.