NCT07538453

Active Breaks and Executive Function in Scholars

Active-breaks, Learning, Creativity and Emotional Health in Preadolescent Students (ACTISTOP)

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 114 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Universitat Jaume I · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 11 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study aims to examine whether short bouts of exercise (10 minutes) performed during the school day can improve thinking skills, creativity and emotional wellbeing in primary school children. Specifically, children aged 11-12 years will be randomly assigned to perform either a short aerobic exercise break, a strength-based exercise break, or a seated control activity. The study will evaluate how these 10 minutes activity breaks influence attention, working memory, creativity, and emotional wellbeing state after completing cognitively demanding tasks. The findings will help to identify effective strategies to integrate physical activity into the classroom to enhance learning and overall well-being in school settings.

Detailed description

This study investigates the effects of short classroom-based physical activity breaks on cognitive performance, creativity and emotional wellbeing in primary school children aged 11 to 12 years. Many children spend long periods sitting during the school day, which may negatively affect attention, learning, and overall health. Introducing brief "active breaks" during class time has been proposed as a practical strategy to interrupt sedentary behavior and promote both physical and cognitive benefits. In this study, participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: an aerobic exercise group, a strength-based (neuromuscular) exercise group, or a control group that remains seated and watches a low-demand video. All interventions will last approximately 10 minutes and will be delivered in a standardized format including a warm-up, main activity, and cool-down. To better reflect real classroom conditions, participants will perform academic tasks (e.g., reading and mathematics) prior to the intervention to induce cognitive fatigue. At baseline, before and after the intervention, children will complete a series of simple tasks and questionnaires designed to assess key aspects of cognitive function, such as attention, working memory, and inhibitory control, as well as creativity and emotional state. In addition, participants will undergo physical fitness assessments (e.g., strength, cardiorespiratory fitness, and body composition). These measures will be used as potential moderating variables or to explore associations between physical fitness levels and cognitive and emotional responses to the activity breaks. The main objective of the study is to determine whether these short activity breaks can produce immediate improvements in cognitive, creativity and emotional outcomes, and whether different types of exercise (aerobic vs. strength-based) have distinct effects. The results of this study may help schools and educators design effective, evidence-based strategies to integrate physical activity into daily classroom routines, with the goal of improving students' learning, wellbeing, and overall development.

Conditions

• Creativity
• Executive Function (Cognition)
• Psychological Wellbeing

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Active Break	A 10-min active break format was selected to maximize feasibility within school settings. All conditions followed an identical temporal structure consisting of a 1-min warm-up, an 8-min main activity phase, and a 1-min cool-down delivered through standardized instructional videos that guided students in reproducing and observing the correct technique and execution of the exercises.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-03-26
• Primary completion: 2026-06-01
• Completion: 2026-06-01
• First posted: 2026-04-20
• Last updated: 2026-04-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Spain