Aim
The study aimed to examine how an intervention consisting of physical activity five times a week, 30 minutes a day for five weeks influence the effect of working memory training in children aged 11 to 14 years.
Method
32 participants were randomized in four groups and the maximal oxygen uptake and cognitive abilities were tested before and after an intervention. The intervention consisted of cognitive training, physical training, a combination of both or activities with the purpose to not stimulate the cognition or the oxygen uptake. The intervention was accomplished for five school days a week, 30 minutes of physical training and 30 minutes of cognitive training a day in a total of five weeks. Cognitive training was performed through the computer program RoboMemo. In the statistical analysis a repeated measures ANOVA was used with the factors time (before or after) and group.
Results
The results of the physical tests and working memory tests showed no significant improvement within or between groups in maximal oxygen uptake or the cognitive tests.
Conclusion
Our study cannot demonstrate that youth’s cognitive ability is improved by physical training and cognitive training. Since the loss was high, the oxygen uptake among the participants before the intervention was hard to increase with the training that was accomplished we cannot draw any general conclusions from the intervention study.