A Finnish study has found an unexpected association between screen use and cognitive performance, according to ScienceDaily. Researchers reported that children who spent more time on screens as they grew older tended to show better cognitive processing in adolescence.
One of the researchers, Doctoral Researcher Petri Jalanko of the University of Jyväskylä, said screen time should not be treated as entirely harmful. He said the key is encouraging device use that supports active thinking, problem-solving, creativity and learning.
The study also looked at physical activity and sedentary behavior from childhood through the teenage years. The relationship was more complex: among girls, more light-intensity physical activity was linked with better working memory, while among boys, more guided physical activity was associated with better working memory.
Researchers noted that lower levels of self-reported unsupervised physical activity were associated with better cognitive processing, while device-measured physical activity and sedentary time were not linked to cognition. The results came from an eight-year follow-up of the PANIC study and were published in the journal Pediatric Exercise Science.
