title: Role of childhood aerobic fitness in successful street crossing.
abstract: Increased aerobic fitness is associated with improved cognition, brain health, and academic achievement during preadolescence.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this study, we extended these findings by examining the relationship between aerobic fitness and an everyday real-world task: street crossing. Because street crossing can be a dangerous multitask challenge and is a leading cause of injury in children, it is important to find ways to improve pedestrian safety.
  
  
  METHODS
  A street intersection was modeled in a virtual environment, and higher-fit (n = 13, 7 boys) and lower-fit (n = 13, 5 boys) 8- to 10-yr-old children, as determined by V˙O(2max) testing, navigated trafficked roads by walking on a treadmill that was integrated with an immersive virtual world. Child pedestrians crossed the street while undistracted, listening to music, or conversing on a hands-free cellular phone.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cell phones impaired street crossing success rates compared with the undistracted or music conditions for all participants (P = 0.004), a result that supports previous research. However, individual differences in aerobic fitness influenced these patterns (fitness × condition interaction, P = 0.003). Higher-fit children maintained street crossing success rates across all three conditions (paired t-tests, all P > 0.4), whereas lower-fit children showed decreased success rates when on the phone, relative to the undistracted (P = 0.018) and music (P = 0.019) conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that higher levels of childhood aerobic fitness may attenuate the impairment typically associated with multitasking during street crossing. It is possible that superior cognitive abilities of higher-fit children play a role in the performance differences during complex real-world tasks.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. lchaddo2@illinois.edu
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Chaddock
authors: Mark B
authors: MB
authors: Neider
authors: Aubrey
authors: A
authors: Lutz
authors: Charles H
authors: CH
authors: Hillman
authors: Arthur F
authors: AF
authors: Kramer
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000523:psychology; D040421:Cell Phone; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology