The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of specifically designed physical activities on primary school children's foreign language vocabulary learning and attentional performance. Design: A total of 104 children aged between 8 and 10 years were assigned to either (a) an embodied learning condition consisting of task-relevant physical activities, (b) a physical activity condition involving task-irrelevant physical activities, or (c) a control condition consisting of a sedentary teaching style. Within a 2-week teaching program, consisting of four learning sessions, children had to learn 20 foreign language words. Method: Children were tested on their memory performance (cued recall test) after completion of the program and on their focused attention (d2-R test of attention) immediately after one learning session. Results: Linear mixed model analyses revealed both the embodied learning (d = 1.12) and the physical activity condition (d = 0.51) as being more effective in teaching children new words than the control condition. Children's focused attention, however, did not differ between the three conditions. Conclusions: The results are discussed in the light of embodied cognition and cognitive load theory. Implications for the inclusion of specific physical activities during the school day are proposed.
Interoception, the sense of the internal body, is proposed to support self-regulation, and consequently influence mental health. Researchers have therefore shown interest in improving the ability to accurately monitor internal signals (i.e., interoceptive accuracy, IAcc). Research suggests that cardiac IAcc is modifiable by both manipulations of interoceptive attention (guided attention towards the internal body), and interoceptive exposure (strategically inducing somatic signals e.g., via physical activity). Whilst successful in isolation, it is unclear whether a combined approach (i.e., directing attention towards the internal body when signals are more salient) could elicit greater benefits. In a 2 × 2 within-subject design, 48 healthy adults (Mage = 25.98 ± 4.73 years, 50% female) completed four 20-min conditions varying in both attentional focus (interoceptive vs exteroceptive) and physical activity (active vs rest), with cardiac IAcc measured immediately after. Results revealed a main effect for physical activity (p < 0.001), however, there was no effect for attentional focus (p = 0.397), and no interaction effect (p = 0.797). Differential analyses showed that a higher sporting background increased sensitivity to physical activity-related increases in cardiac IAcc (p = 0.031). Findings indicate that (irrespective of attentional focus) moderate-vigorous physical activity-based interventions have the potential to increase cardiac IAcc, with certain individuals potentially benefiting more.
Introduction First studies indicate that sedentary time relates negatively to mood in everyday life (Giurgiu et al., 2019). Less is known regarding how these relationships are moderated by contextual factors, such as social situation and environmental location, which are factors that may reinforce or mitigate the negative association between sedentary time and mood and hence may provide potential to intervene upon the negative effects of sedentary behavior. Hence, this study aimed to explore the interplay between sedentary time and contextual factors regarding momentary mood in everyday life. Method We recruited 73 university students (48% female, Mage = 21.64 ±2.52 years, MBMI = 22.88 ±2.26) to participate in an observational ambulatory assessment study. We continuously measured sedentary time and physical activity via a thigh-worn accelerometer for seven consecutive days. Participants filled in an established momentary mood questionnaire up to ten times a day on movement-triggered e-diaries. In addition, they reported their social company (alone vs. with others) and their location (indoor vs. outdoors) during the 15 min time frame preceding the prompt. We analyzed the data using multilevel modeling. Results: Analyzing the 15 min prior the e-diary prompt, main effects models revealed that sedentary time was associated with decreased energetic arousal only (B = -0.57, p < 0.001). Being with others compared to being alone was associated with increased valence (B = 2.96, p < 0.001), energetic arousal (B = 1.93, p = 0.032), and increased calmness (B = 3.89, p < 0.001). Location was unrelated to all mood dimensions. Moderation analysis did not show significant interactions between sedentary time and both the social situation and the location. Discussion Both sedentary time and social company are associated with mood in everyday life, however, in this study, these associations appear to be independent of each other. For energetic arousal, this may indicate that the mechanisms by which sedentary time influences energetic arousal is predominantly physiological (Thyfault et al., 2015), leaving little room for influence from contextual factors. While this study investigated two well-known contextual factors, future studies should expand this research to other contextual factors (e.g., noise assessment, air pollution) and apply more fine-grained objective measures of contextual factors instead of self-report, such as continuous geolocation tracking for the assessment of the environmental location or noise assessment. This may help to identify factors that mitigate the negative effects of sedentary behavior on mood and provide a basis for developing guidelines regarding sedentary behavior. References Giurgiu, M., Koch, E. D., Ottenbacher, J., Plotnikoff, R. C., Ebner‐Priemer, U. W., & Reichert, M. (2019). Sedentary behavior in everyday life relates negatively to mood: An ambulatory assessment study. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 29(9), 1340-1351. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13448 Thyfault, J. P., Du, M., Kraus, W. E., Levine, J. A., & Booth, F. W. (2015). Physiology of sedentary behavior and its relationship to health outcomes. Medicine & Science in & Exercise, 47(6), 1301-1305. https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000000518
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