Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Studies with older children and adults have found that physically engaging video games (i.e., Exergames) that promoteboth cognitive control and physical activity improve executive function (EF) skills; yet, children below school age remainunderstudied with regard to the impact of Exergames on EF. Additionally, research on the extent of the impact of Ex-ergames resulting in prolonged changes, and whether training generalizes to EF-related behaviors in a real-world contextremains scarce. This study examined the short- and long-term changes in EF of 4- to 5-year-olds after participation in two20-minute Exergame sessions. Results indicate that Exergame training improved performance on EF tasks and resultedin higher teacher ratings of EF in the classroom compared to a sex-/classroom-/age-matched control group. The improve-ments in EF persisted over a one-month period. This study provides novel insights into the short-term and long-termeffects of Exergame training on executive function in preschool-aged children.