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Effects of physical activity breaks on cognitive function in undergraduate students: a pilot study
Open accessAbstract
Physical activity is known to have several cognitive benefits. As a result, many teachers introduce short bouts of physical activity (active breaks) during their lessons. However, active breaks are less common in the university context, where students tend to remain passive during lessons. Therefore, there is a paucity of literature on active breaks and their benefits for undergraduate students. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a 10-min active break at moderate intensity on vigilance in undergraduate students by using a psychomotor vigilance task. Twenty-six undergraduate students (Mage = 23.36, SD = 1.98; 53.8% females) participated in this study and performed two conditions: control condition (passive condition) and experimental condition (active break). Results revealed that after receiving 10 min of moderate-intensity physical activity, the students improved their attention, as they responded faster to the psychomotor vigilance task than in the control condition. Considering these results, it seems that students can benefit from physical activity breaks by improving their vigilance. However, as this conclusion is based on a pilot study, we should be cautious in interpreting these results. Further research into this finding is needed.
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“Seven studies addressed sustained attention, five of which found significant improvements [22, 23, 25, 27, 34] and two reported no effect [29, 33], resulting in relatively strong evidence strength (71.4%).”
From Effect of classroom physical activity breaks on learning behaviors and academic achievements in university students: a systematic review (2026) · cites this paper as [27]
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Cites
Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited
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“…simultaneously recorded by the classroom teacher using an ipad™ at the time of the intervention. heart rate data was immediately measured after the active break session. the formula (208 − [0.7 × age]) proposed by tanaka et al. (2001) was used to obtain the estimated threshold of the participants.”
InfluentialChaddock, L., Pontifex, M. B., Hillman, C. H., & Kramer, A. F. (2011) · Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society · doi:10.1017/s1355617711000567 · Cited by 369
Impact of short bouts of physical activity on attention-to-task in elementary school children
Mahar, M. T. (2011) · Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2011.01.026 · Cited by 202
Janssen, M., Toussaint, H. M., van Mechelen, W., & Verhagen, E. A. (2014) · SpringerPlus · doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-410 · Cited by 66
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Acute Effects of a Short Bout of Physical Activity on Cognitive Function in Sport Students
Niedermeier, M., Weiss, E. M., Steidl-Müller, L., Burtscher, M., & Kopp, M. (2020) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph17103678 · Cited by 33 · cited 1×
“…physical activity breaks has also been observed in previous research with children (Ma et al., 2015; Mahar, 2011) and undergraduate students, as niedermeier et al. (2020) demonstrated that 10 min of physical activity increased their visual attention. this finding suggests that even short bouts…”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Deng, Q., Wu, C., & Yang, L. (2026) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/s12966-026-01936-7
Metadata
- Authors
- Pastor-Vicedo, J. C., León, M. P., González-Fernández, F. T., & Prieto-Ayuso, A.
- Affiliations
- Department of Didactics of Physical Education, Arts Education and Music, University of Castilla-La Mancha
- University of Castilla-La Mancha (ES)
- Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Granada
- Corresponding author
- Prieto-Ayuso, Alejandro
- ORCID
- Venue
- Cogent Social Sciences
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2024-03-11
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2331-1886 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4392661758
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 3.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cogent Social Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Institutional Repository of the University of Granada (University of Granada) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- RUIdeRA - Institutional University Repository (University of Castilla-La Mancha) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha
- ERDF (SBPLY/19/180501/000147)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Physical Activity and Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
- Keywords
- physical activity breaks, active breaks, cognitive function, sustained attention, attention, psychomotor vigilance task, undergraduate students, university students, moderate-intensity exercise
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