<![CDATA[This study aims to determine the effect of study break duration on students’ cognitive performance, specifically on their working memory capacity. This study employed a Between-Subjects Post-test Only experimental design based on the MAXMINCON (Maximize The Effect of Systematic Variance) principle. A total of 33 tenth-grade students from SMKN 20 Jakarta were selected using simple random sampling and randomly assigned to three groups, each receiving a different rest duration: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes. In the classroom, participants memorized a series of numbers from the Digit Span Test, followed by a predetermined rest period. During this time, students were allowed to sleep or chat but were strictly prohibited from using smartphones or leaving the classroom to buy snacks. After the break ended, they were asked to recall and write down the numbers they had memorized, then fill out a questionnaire via Google Forms. The data were analyzed using an ANOVA test, followed by a Games-Howell test. The results of the analysis using Welch’s ANOVA showed that the duration of breaks during learning significantly affected students’ cognitive performance (F = 18.7, p < 0.001). Post-hoc analysis using the Games-Howell test revealed no significant difference in working memory capacity between the 5-minute break group (M = 16.8) and the 10-minute break group (M = 15.9) (p = 0.97). In contrast, students with a 15-minute break duration demonstrated significantly higher cognitive performance (M = 32.5) compared to the two groups with shorter breaks, with their average scores nearly doubling. This study concludes that a break duration of at least 15 minutes is necessary for cognitive recovery and to effectively reduce academic cognitive load.]]>
