Exergaming and Executive Functioning

• In Event: Digital Video Game Play in Children’s Learning and Cognitive Development

Abstract

Exergaming, a popular activity for youth that combines video gaming with physical activity, may impact executive functioning, which includes attention, inhibition, and memory. Executive functioning skills work together to achieve higher-order functions such as problem-solving. Because executive functioning develops throughout childhood, a range of experiences can influence these skills. The focus of the current study was to understand how engagement with different interactive media platforms impacts children’s cognitive development, specifically their executive functioning skills. Interventions that improve executive functioning are of interest because these skills can contribute to academic outcomes. Research demonstrates that playing video games and being physically active independently improve cognitive flexibility and visual attention. By combining physical activity with game play, exergames may have the most potential to influence executive functioning. The goal of this study was to explore the influence of playing physically active versus non-active video games on executive function skills.
Participants were 308 9- to 16-year-olds (44% female), of which 48% were African American, 48% were Hispanic/Latino, and 4% were biracial. The research took place in an applied setting at a six-week summer camp in the South Bronx for low-income students from the surrounding neighborhood. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a Nintendo Wii Fit group, a non-active video game group, and a non-playing control without an intervention. The Nintendo Wii Fit game involves a series of balance games (e.g. hula hoop, ski slalom) in which the player must physically move in order to move one’s on-screen virtual character and earn points in the game. The non-active video game was BoomBlox a strategic puzzle game. The video game groups played for 30 minutes weekly for 4 weeks in addition to regular camp activities. All youth were pre- and post-tested on the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), including the Trail-Making and the Design Fluency sub-scales. The pencil-and-paper test measures visual-spatial skills, attention, response inhibition, shifting and cognitive flexibility in a puzzle-like structure. Difference scores were calculated as post-test score minus baseline score.
A 3 (condition) x 2 (time) repeated measures ANOVA, with D-KEFS difference score as the dependent variable, revealed a significant main effect of time, F(1,108) = 5.1, p = .027, and a significant effect for the time by condition interaction, F(2,109) = 5.86, p = .004. While all adolescents on average improved over time on the D-KEFS, as indicated by the main effect, the amount of improvement was affected by condition, as revealed in the significant interaction. Post-hoc analyses revealed the Wii Fit and non-active video game groups significantly improved more than the non-playing control, but there was no added benefit found for the exergame group versus the non-active video game group.
Video game play, whether active or non-active, produced improvements in adolescents’ executive functioning. Physical activity within game play did not appear to promote additional cognitive improvements beyond the gaming effects. The short-term effects of gaming to improve executive function skills bears significant implications for using gaming to boost adolescents’ cognitive and academic performance.

Authors

• Rachel Flynn, University of California - Riverside

• Amanda Staiano, Pennington Biomedical Research Center

• Rebekah Richert, University of California - Riverside