High Intensity Physical Activity Improves Sustained Attention When Compared to Cell Phone Use
Emma Wrench
Supervisor: Dr. Reiko Yeap
BACKGROUND

Taking short breaks is beneficial to
mental functioning (Albulescu et al.
2022).
10-minute, intense physical
activity (PA) may improve
mental functioning and may be
used as a good study break
(Neidermeier et al., 2022).

Cell phone use
during breaks
seems to be
detrimental to
attention (Kang
and Kurtzberg,
2019).

Study Break
Activities

The purpose of this study was
to discover what students do on
study breaks, and to find out if
acute, high intensity PA was an
effective study break.

PROCEDURE

Survey
Informed Consent

However, not all findings come to the
same conclusion on high intensity PA
and attention, some find it ineffective
(Znazen et al., 2022).

International
Physical Activity
Questionnaire

Media
Multitasking
Measure-Short

Experiment
10 Minutes of
PA or Cell
Phone Use

Attention and
Emotion

Informed Consent

Sustained
Attention to
Response Task

Attention and
Emotion

RESULTS
Only 55% of students do
any kind of Physical Activity
(PA) during their 5 minute
to 1-hour long study breaks.

5 Most Popular Activities for 5
Minute-30 Minute Breaks

5 Most Popular Activities for
30 Minute-1 Hour Breaks

• SOCIAL MEDIA (85%)
• Bathroom (73%)
• Eating (72%)
• In-Person Conversations
(55%)
• Drinking Caffeine (48%)

• Eating (78%)
• SOCIAL MEDIA (75%)
• Bathroom (66%)
• In-Person Conversations
(62%)
• Watching TV (53%)

Non-Kinesiology Students
Engaged in More...

Non-kinesiology students scored on
average 1 POINT HIGHER on the
Media Multitasking Measure-Short.

TV + Messaging

Perceived attention
and emotion scores
DID NOT CHANGE
within individuals or
between conditions
(PA and cell phone
use).

TV + Social Media
Messaging + Social Media

Kinesiology students had DOUBLE the Metabolic
Equivalent of Task Minutes on average, meaning they did
more activity of higher intensity than typical students.

There were significantly MORE ERRORS in
the cell phone use condition, compared to
the high-intensity physical activity condition.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Different groups should be
studied to discover which
populations benefit from PA.
Different activities
should be
compared:
Mindfulness,
spending time with
family…

Strategic study breaks
are essential for
enhancing attention,
especially for students
with demanding study
schedules and limited
time.

Social media is
becoming more
pervasive and needs to
be studied more.

Invest time in
being active,
especially when
time seems
most elusive.

PA is a better
study break for
attention than
cell-phone use.