Effect of play at recess on diurnal fluctuations in ability to refocus cognitively in pupils aged 11–12 years

ABSTRACT

We aimed to investigate the effect of play at recess on diurnal fluctuations of the ability to refocus cognitively on pupils aged 11–12 years. Twenty-seven volunteer children (age = 12 ± 0.6 years) performed two test-sessions at 09:45, 10:15, 14:45 and 15:15 h. Each two test-sessions were separated by a recess (with or without motor activity). During each session, oral temperature, the reaction time (RT) and constant attention (CA) were measured. The results demonstrated that Δ-changes in core temperature, CA and RT demonstrated a significant effect of type of activity, no significant effect of time of day and no significant interaction between the type of activity and the time of day. Therefore, play at recess improves the children’s abilities to regenerate cognitive performance independent of the time of the day.

KEYWORDS:

• Diurnal variation
• recess
• reaction time
• attention
• motor activity
• learning rhythm

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.