The paper addresses the phenomenon of media multitasking that is being widely spread among children and adolescents in the context of digital socialization. The previous research has revealed its strong connection with cognitive control, executive functions, and academic performance, yet the specificity and efficacy of media multitasking performance, especially among children while they carry out usual activities, remains insufficiently studied. A quasi-experimental study, including digital tasks of various types on a computer and smartphone, the dots task for executive functions, and a socio-psychological questionnaire, was conducted with the participants of three age groups: 7–10, 11–13, and 14–16 years old (N = 154). The results indicate that media multitasking is connected not with sex, but age; the older the participants are, the more likely they tend to work in a multitasking mode. Furthermore, preference for multitasking has been found to be positively related to higher user activity. Although the total task performance rate is insignificantly lower in the multitasking group as compared to the non-multitasking one, a significant negative effect of media multitasking on total performance time was revealed. The results of the study that indicate a strong connection of media multitasking with the intensity of Internet usage, cognitive functions, and performance time, suggest its considerable role in social and cognitive functioning of children and adolescents.
Дренёва Анна Алексан дровна -психолог кафедры методологии психологии факультета психологии Московского государственного университета имени М.В. Ломоносова.
Objective
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an effective treatment for pediatric high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors. Still, both the disease and treatment often impair cognitive and motor functions, and HSCT is a risk factor for long-term deficits. The study aimed at investigating the effect of HSCT on cognitive, motor, and visual-motor functions. Two groups were enrolled: The first group received HSCT treatment, and the second group did not.
Method
Sixty-five ALL survivors participated in the study (ages: 7–17). Twenty-one of participants who underwent HSCT comprised the first group. We implemented tests from Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, and Test of Memory and Learning to estimate cognitive functions, Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency to estimate motor functions, and Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test to estimate visual perceptual and visual motor functions. As independent variables for analysis we chose group (HSCT+/−), age at diagnosis, and current age.
Results
MANCOVA test demonstrated significant effect of current age on cognitive functions (partial η2 = 0.55) and significant effect of HSCT treatment on motor functions (partial η2 = 0.19). Current age also had moderate effect on visual-motor functions (partial η2 = 0.11). Significant differences were found in most cognitive, motor, and visual-motor tests’ results between the two groups, with HSCT+ group demonstrating poorer performance.
Conclusions
This study has several limitations, including small sample size, potentially mismatched groups, imbalanced gender ratio. Still, the findings underline the importance of considering late effects of HSCT, and age when designing rehabilitation programs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.