Sit Still or Move More? The Impact of Fidgeting on Creativity.

ABSTRACT: Many modern classrooms impose constraints on student movement, both physical (e.g. stable, upright chairs) and psychological (e.g. norms that "being still" signals paying attention).. We conducted two separate studies on 32 6^th grade (11-12 year old) and 43 7^th grade (12-13 year old) students, respectively. Study 1 was a within-subject design and compared students' creative ideation on the Alternate Uses Test and a verbal memory task through two conditions: Sit Still (on a regular chair with instructions to not move) or Freedom to Move (on a wiggle stool with ability to move as they wanted). There was a significant effect of condition on novel ideas, as well as number of novel ideas / total ideation (creativity ratio). There was no significant difference by condition

SUBMITTER: Oppezzo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12646023 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature