Author(s): LUDYGA, S., GERBER, M., BERGER, M., Institution: UNIVERSITY OF BASEL, Country: SWITZERLAND, Abstract-ID: 780

Introduction: Inhibitory control is a core executive function that supports the regulation of goal-directed behavior in classroom contexts, including the suppression of inappropriate motor, verbal, or attentional responses (Ludyga et al., 2022). Acute physical exercise has the potential to benefit inhibitory control (Oberste et al., 2019), which may translate into improved classroom behavior. We investigated the transient effects of different types of exercise on both inhibitory control and off-task behavior in children and adolescents.
Methods: In two experimental studies with a pre-posttest design, participants were randomized to two exercise groups and a control group. The exercise groups differed in cooperative demands in experiment 1 (age: 11.6 ± 0.6 y; N=101) and in coordinative demands in experiment 2 (age: 13.1 ± 1.2 y; N=111). In both experiments, off-task behavior was assessed from video recordings of a regular classroom lesson and categorized as on-task, passive off-task, noise-related off-task, or motor off-task behavior by two independent raters. Additionally, Inhibitory control was measured using a computerized flanker task. Path modeling was applied to examine general and specific effects of exercise on off-task behavior, while considering indirect effects via changes in inhibitory control.
Results: Across both experiments, exercise was associated with lower-off-task behavior at posttest, when autoregressive effects were accounted for. While cooperative demands were not related to off-task behavior at posttest, exercise with additional coordinative demands increase the frequency of off-task behavior. Path analysis further revealed a decreased reaction time on incongruent trials of the Flanker task, but this decrease was not related to off-task behavior at posttest.
Conclusion: A single exercise session embedded in the school day can transiently decrease off-task behavior in the classroom, when the coordinative demands of the exercise session are low. While these effects are accompanied by improvements in inhibitory control, changes in this cognitive ability do not underlie alterations in classroom behavior.

Ludyga, S., Gerber, M., Brand, S., Möhring, W., & Pühse, U. (2022). Do different cognitive domains mediate the association between moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity and adolescents’ off‐task behaviour in the classroom?. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), e12445.
Oberste, M., Javelle, F., Sharma, S., Joisten, N., Walzik, D., Bloch, W., & Zimmer, P. (2019). Effects and moderators of acute aerobic exercise on subsequent interference control: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2616.