The relationship between cognitive abilities and academic achievement across schooling from the first to the eleventh grade was analyzed. Information processing speed, visuospatial working memory, number sense, and fluid intelligence were considered predictors of general academic achievement, which was derived from grades in mathematics, language, and biology. This cross-sectional study involved 1560 pupils who were in grades 1–11 at general education schools and were aged from 6.8 to 19.1 years (50.4% were boys). Information processing speed, visuospatial working memory, and number sense were measured using the Choice Reaction Time, Corsi Block-Tapping, and Number Sense computerized tests, respectively. Fluid intelligence was measured using the paper-and-pencil version of the Standard Progressive Matrices test. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were carried out. It was shown that it is possible to describe the structure of the relationship between cognitive abilities and academic achievement for all levels of schooling with a single model. In this model, information processing speed is the key predictor of fluid intelligence, working memory, and number sense, which in turn contribute to individual differences in academic success. Additionally, the specificity of the relationship between individual indicators of cognitive abilities and academic achievement at each level of schooling was revealed.

Background. !e COVID-19 pandemic has subjected people around the world to severe stress, evoking a variety of coping responses. Coping responses can be broadly classi"ed into four strategies: 1) problem-focused coping; 2) emotionfocused coping; 3) socially supported coping; and 4) avoidance. While there is a wide variability of individual coping responses, to some extent they are also culturally speci"c. Objective. !is study aimed to compare the di#erences in the prevalence and factor structure of coping responses during COVID-19 pandemic in three countries: Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru. Design. !e sample included 501 participants from Russia, 456 participants from Kyrgyzstan, and 354 participants from Peru. !e mean age of participants was 28 years in Russia (SD = 13.5); 24 years in Kyrgyzstan (SD = 10.0); and 30 years in Peru (SD = 12.3). In Russia and Kyrgyzstan, coping strategies were assessed with an abbreviated Russian adaptation of the COPE (Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced) questionnaire. In Peru, coping responses were assessed using the Spanish version of the Brief COPE questionnaire. !e average scores from "%een COPE scales were used as the input data for linear modelling and factor analysis. Results. !e coping scores varied substantially within each country. Di#erences between countries accounted for 17.7% of the total variability in religious coping; 15.8% in acceptance; 13.9% in mental disengagement; and less than 7% in the other coping strategies. No di#erence in the prevalence of coping responses was found between Russian and Kyrgyz participants a%er accounting for age and gender. In all three countries the coping responses were associated with the same four coping domains: problem-focused coping, socially supported coping, avoidance, and emotion-focused coping. Four factors explained up to 44% of the total variation in the COPE scores. Religious coping and mental disengagement were classi"ed into di#erent coping domains in the three countries. Conclusion. !e results suggest that during the COVID-19 pandemic, people from di#erent countries apply the full range of coping responses within the four universal coping strategies. Religious coping and mental disengagement di#ered the most across the countries, suggesting that some coping behaviors can take on di#erent roles within the system of coping responses to stressful events. We attribute these di#erences to di#ering cultural and socioeconomic characteristics, and the di#erent measures taken by governments in response to COVID-19.

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The present study was motivated by a scarcity of knowledge about the impact of early bilingualism on the development of general creativity and mathematical creativity. Two groups of bilingual and monolingual preschoolers (mean age = 60.9 months, SD= 3.1) from the same monolingual kindergarten participated in this study: 15 Russian/Hebrew balanced bilinguals and 15 native Hebrew-speaking monolinguals. All children were administered the Figural Form A (Thinking Creatively with Pictures) from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, the Pictorial Multiple Solution Task assessing general creativity, and the Creating Equal Number task measuring mathematical creativity. Bilingual children showed higher creative ability than their monolingual peers. It seems, however, that bilingualism affects various domains of creative ability differently. Consistent with findings of an earlier study (M. Leikin, 2013) the results demonstrate that relationships between creativity components and bilingualism are task dependent, and when differences between bilingual and monolingual children are revealed, they are in favor of bilinguals. In other words, advantages in creative ability in bilinguals are specific rather than general.

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Graph thresholding is a frequently used practice of eliminating the weak connections in brain functional connectivity graphs. The main aim of the procedure is to delete the spurious connections in the data. However, the choice of the threshold is arbitrary, and the effect of the threshold choice is not fully understood. Here we present the description of the changes in the global measures of a functional connectivity graph depending on the different proportional thresholds based on the 146 resting-state EEG recordings. The dynamics is presented in five different synchronization measures (wPLI, ImCoh, Coherence, ciPLV, PPC) in sensors and source spaces. The analysis shows significant changes in the graph’s global connectivity measures as a function of the chosen threshold which may influence the outcome of the study. The choice of the threshold could lead to different study conclusions; thus it is necessary to improve the reasoning behind the choice of the different analytic options and consider the adoption of different analytic approaches. We also proposed some ways of improving the procedure of thresholding in functional connectivity research.