Active recovery? - Effects of a physical activity break on student's attention and mood

Theoretical Background
More and more universities are offering physical activity breaks in seminars for the active recovery of student’s learning conditions. However, the effects of physical activity breaks, especially in university classes, on cognitive performance and motivational learning conditions have not been adequately investigated, Therefore, the acute effects of a physical activity break within university seminars were investigated. By an intervention-control group design, the acute effects of a 10-min physical activity break (N = 63, Mage=23.74 years, SD = 4.36) within university seminars on student’s attention and mood were investigated. In the physical activity intervention group student’s attention (attention-processing speed: p = < .05, η2 = .062, attention performance: p = < .05, η2 = .806) and mood improved (feeling calmer: p= < .05, η2 = .071; feeling more awake: p = < .05, η2 = .060) compared to the control group. The results point to acute effects of physical activity breaks on student’s cognitive and motivational learning conditions and the relevance of breaks in learning settings. At the conference possible moderation effects will be presented and transfer possibilities and limitations will be discussed.

Extended Summary:
Aims
More and more universities are offering exercise breaks in seminars for the active recovery of student’s cognitive performance and to promote student’s health. However, the effects of physical activity breaks, especially physical activity breaks in university classes, on cognitive performance and motivational learning conditions have not been adequately investigated (Infantes-Paniagua et al., 2021). Previous findings on the effects of physical activity breaks on cognitive abilities refer to overall positive effects on attention, executive functions and academic performance (Haverkamp et al., 2020), but also to meta-analytical findings that report no effects or heterogeneous findings (Amatriain- Fernández, Ezquerro García-Noblejas & Budde, 2021; Ishihara, Drollette, Ludyga, Hillman & Kamijo, 2021). Previous studies are also often criticized for methodological weaknesses and that physical activity intervention studies within university learning settings are still scarce (Müller et al., 2021; Singh et al., 2019; Wassenaar et al., 2020).

The aim of the present intervention study was therefore to investigate the effects of a physical activity break in university classes on attention and mood compared to a conventional break without physical activation.

Methodology
A total of 63 students from four weekly university seminars participated (72.22% = female, Mage = 23.74 years, SD = 4.36). Seminars had similar content and were all from one university teacher. Two seminars belonged to the intervention and two seminars to the control group. For the physical activity break the "Pausenexpress" i. e. the physical activity break of a university in a major German city was investigated. The physical intervention was a standardized 10-min break with a trained staff member of the university, providing instructions and serving as a role model. The physical activity started after 45 minutes of the seminar. The physical activities had a standardized structure (warm-up, exercise phase, cool-down) and was based on meta-analytical findings regarding the duration and content of physical activity breaks (e.g. mobilization, stretching and relaxation exercises; Singh et al., 2019). To implement the intervention, the trainer was introduced to students several weeks before the start of the intervention phase and the physical activities were also introduced in the seminar. In the control group, a conventional break or no break were implemented.

Selective attention (d2-R; Brickenkamp, Schmidt-Atzert & Liepmann, 2010), mood (MDBF multi-dimensional mood state questionnaire; Steyer, Schwenkmezger, Notz & Eid, 1997) and mind wandering (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010) were used for dependent variables. In addition, the mental and physical exertion during breaks was recorded (Borg, 1998). Furthermore, demographic information (age, gender), personality traits (BFI-10; Rammstedt, Kemper, Klein, Beierlein & Kovaleva, 2013), fitness level (1-item: “How fit do you think you are physically?), stress level (1-Item: "How much stress are you currently under?) and attitude towards breaks (7 items, e.g. "A break in seminars is absolutely necessary."). The intervention phase lasted 4 weeks (weeks 10 to 13 of the semester). The pre-post tests were performed at 10th and 13th session to investigate acute (after just one session) as well as chronic effects, which is common for this research but has rarely been combined (Ai et al ., 2021; Liu et al., 2020).

Findings
At the conference, the results of acute effects of a physical activity break within a university seminar on student’s attention and well-being will be presented. Intervention and control groups did not differ in attention and mood scores and not on other variables (age, gender, personality traits, fitness level, stress level, attitude towards breaks) at pretest (all p-values > .05). Using ANOVAs with repeated measures, significant interaction effects (group*time) were found on two of three scales of selective attention (attention-processing speed (total number of correctly crossed letters): F(1,61)=4.02, p=<.05, η2=.062, and attention-performance (total number of errors subtracted from the total number of correctly crossed letters): F(1,61)=5.34, p=<.05, η2=.806) and in two of three scales for mood (scale: calm-nervous: F(1,61)=4.67, p=0.035 η2=.071; scale : awake-tired mood dimension: F(1,61)=3.87, p=<.05, η2=.060). Post-hoc analyzes showed that participants in the intervention group always improved more over time than in the control group.

Significance
The results point to the relevance of breaks in learning settings and to acute effect of breaks on student’s attention and mood. At the conference possible moderation effects will be presented, and transfer of results and limitations will be discussed.