ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2026, Vol. 58 ›› Issue (6): 1160-1182.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2026.1160 cstr: 32110.14.2026.1160

• 研究报告 • 上一篇    下一篇

超越屏幕: 运动视频游戏训练可以更好提升儿童执行功能

马超, 赵璐, 赵鑫   

  1. 西北师范大学心理学院, 兰州 730070
  • 收稿日期:2025-03-27 发布日期:2026-04-28 出版日期:2026-06-25
  • 通讯作者: 赵鑫, E-mail: psyzhaoxin@nwnu.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金项目(32260207), 教育部人文社会科学研究项目(21XJA190005), 2025年甘肃省高校研究生“创新之星”项目(2025CXZX-LXB050)资助

Beyond the screen: Sports video game training can better enhance children's executive functions

MA Chao, ZHAO Lu, ZHAO Xin   

  1. School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
  • Received:2025-03-27 Online:2026-04-28 Published:2026-06-25

摘要: 运动视频游戏作为一种兼顾身体运动与认知任务的创新型训练方式, 其不同组合模式对儿童执行功能的影响, 以及认知参与和运动强度在其中的作用, 仍是当前运动-认知领域亟待深入探索的核心议题。本研究通过两项系统性实验考察究竟何种形式的运动视频游戏训练更有利于儿童执行功能的发展。实验1比较融合式(运动视频游戏)与结合式(运动+视频游戏)两种训练模式的差异化影响, 结果表明, 运动视频游戏训练显著提升了儿童的反应抑制和工作记忆刷新能力, 且效果明显优于运动+视频游戏训练。补充实验进一步发现, 相比于年轻成人, 儿童群体在运动视频游戏训练中获得了更大的认知收益, 这得益于其更高的神经可塑性。实验2进一步剖析运动强度和认知参与的作用机制, 结果显示, 认知参与对反应抑制能力的促进作用较运动强度更为显著且持久; 在工作记忆刷新方面, 运动强度和认知参与均发挥积极作用, 但二者未表现出交互效应, 提示两者可能通过独立的神经通路影响执行功能。总的来说, 本研究揭示了运动视频游戏训练在儿童执行功能提升方面的显著效果及作用机制, 为具身认知理论和认知刺激假说提供了新的实证支持, 提示未来研究应优先采用融合式训练模式, 强化认知任务的设计, 并结合个体差异调整运动强度, 以优化训练效果。

关键词: 运动视频游戏, 执行功能, 儿童, 运动强度, 认知参与

Abstract: Although executive functions continue to develop throughout an individual's lifespan, childhood— characterized by rapid development and heightened plasticity— is widely recognized as the most critical period in this regard. Sports video game training, an innovative approach integrating physical sport with cognitive tasks, has demonstrated promising potential to enhance executive function in children. However, the differential effects of various combinations of sports and video game elements on children's executive functions—as well as the respective roles of cognitive engagement and sport intensity in facilitating these effects in the motor-cognitive domain—warrant further exploration. This study aimed to identify which form of sports video game training is most beneficial for enhancing children's executive functions, through two innovative intervention experiments.
Experiment 1, including 90 children (mean age = 11.34 ± 0.48 years), employed an integrated training mode (sports video game training) and a combined training mode (sports + video game training) to examine their differential effects on children's executive functions through a 6-week intervention (3 sessions per week, 30 minutes per session). Results demonstrated that sports video game training significantly enhanced children's response inhibition and working memory updating abilities, with effects markedly superior to those of sports + video game training and the control group. However, interference inhibition and attention switching yielded no significant improvement across training conditions. A supplementary experiment further revealed that compared with young adults, children derived greater cognitive benefits from sports video game training, likely attributable to their higher neural plasticity during this rapid developmental period of executive functions. This finding provides important evidence for prioritizing the integrated training mode in pediatric populations.
Experiment 2 included 120 children (mean age = 12.44 ± 0.61 years) and adopted a 2 (sport intensity: high vs. low) × 2 (cognitive engagement: high vs. low) experimental design to further elucidate the roles of sport intensity and cognitive engagement as mechanisms underlying the effects of sports video game training on executive function. Results indicated that, compared with sport intensity, cognitive engagement exerted a more significant and enduring facilitative effect on children's response inhibition, with a substantially larger effect size (η2p = 0.379) than sport intensity (η2p = 0.140). Moreover, the advantage of high cognitive engagement amplified progressively with extended training duration. Regarding working memory updating, although both sport intensity and cognitive engagement contributed positively, they exhibited no significant interaction effect, suggesting that these two factors may influence executive functions through independent neural pathways—sport intensity via a “physiological arousal-resource allocation” pathway and cognitive engagement through a “task challenge-neural modulation” pathway.
In conclusion, this study revealed the significant effects of sports video game training in enhancing children's executive functions as well as the underlying mechanisms, providing novel empirical support for embodied cognition theory and the cognitive stimulation hypothesis, while also offering scientific evidence for executive function interventions in educational practice. Future research should prioritize the integrated training mode, strengthen cognitive task design, and flexibly adjust sport intensity according to children's age characteristics and individual differences, while also investigating optimal dosage parameters and the long-term sustainability of training effects to maximize intervention outcomes.

Key words: sports video game training, executive function, children, sport intensity, cognitive engagement