Relationships Between Accuracy in Predicting Direction of Gravitational Vertical and Academic Performance and Physical Fitness in Schoolchildren.

Wayne Haynes,Roger Adams,Gordon Waddington,Brice Isableu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01528

Wayne Haynes, Roger Adams + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01528

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Abstract

Enhanced levels of cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) and physical activity (PA) are both positively associated with health and academic outcomes, but less is known about the spatial processing and perceptual components of PA. Perception of vertical (PV) is a spatial orientation ability that is important for PA, and is usually measured as relative accuracy in aligning an object to gravitational vertical against a tilted background. However, evidence is inconclusive regarding the relationship of PV to educational outcomes – most importantly, numeracy. Students were recruited from primary schools in the Australian Capital Territory. A group of 341 (females n = 162, mean age 11.3 years) children performed all the tests required for this study. A computerised rod and frame test of PV employing a small (20°) visual angle was administered, and socio-economic status (SES), national education test results (NAPLAN, 2010), and CRF and PA data were collected. Correlation and hierarchical regression analysis were used to examine the inter-relationships between PV and CRF, PA, SES and NAPLAN results. The two extreme quartile score groups from the measures of PV, PA and CRF were examined in relation to NAPLAN scores. PV scores arising from testing with a small visual angle and SES were found to be significantly associated with overall academic scores, and with the Numeracy, Reading, and Writing components of academic performance. Female gender was significantly associated with Writing score, and male with Numeracy score. Being less influenced by the background tilted frame, and therefore having visual field independence (FI), was associated with significantly higher academic scores, with the largest effect in Numeracy scores (effect size, d = 0.82) and also associated with higher CRF and PA levels. FI was positively associated with all the academic modules examined, and most strongly with Numeracy test results, suggesting that FI provides an indicator of STEM ability. These findings suggest that further longitudinal research into strategies designed to enhance visual FI deserve consideration, with a focus on specialized PA programs for pre-pubescent children. It is possible that small visual angle spatial tasks during PA may stimulate neural networks involved in numerical cognition.

Highlights

Enhanced levels of physical activity (PA) and cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) in children are proposed to be positively associated with health, with wellness (Smith et al, 2014; Poitras et al, 2016) and with academic performance
Small to medium-sized, statistically significant correlations were observed between the Computerised Rod And Frame Test (CRAFT) and individual measures of academic performance, measured by the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests in ten year old school children for reading (r = −0.24, p < 0.001), writing (r = −0.2, p < 0.001), numeracy (r = −0.35, p < 0.001) and summed academic scores (r = −0.31, p < 0.001)
Cardio-respiratory fitness association with numeracy was significant and classified as small (r = 0.12, p = 0.007), as it was with Overall Academic Scores (r = 0.12, p = 0.009), and with writing having a small to medium effect size (r = 0.15, p < 0.001)

Summary

Introduction

Enhanced levels of physical activity (PA) and cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) in children are proposed to be positively associated with health, with wellness (Smith et al, 2014; Poitras et al, 2016) and with academic performance (for a review, see Tomporowski et al, 2015; Ruiz-Ariza et al, 2017). Quantitative modes of PA relate exclusively to the duration and intensity of physical activities, whilst qualitative modes include more complex tasks requiring greater involvement of cognitive networks, by stimulating perceptual mechanisms and executive control pathways (Pesce, 2012; Tomporowski et al, 2015). Spatial ability includes both a perceptual component and a qualitative factor associated with PA (Pesce, 2012). A working paper by the OECD suggested that spatial ability and STEM learning are associated, and that spatial abilities are malleable (Newcombe, 2017)

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