The effects of cognitive training on executive functions and reading in typically-developing children with varied socioeconomic status in Brazil

Abstract

Recent findings show that children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) tend to have reduced performance on several tasks involving working memory, attention and executive control. In addition, researchers argue for the effectiveness of training of these same cognitive skills as a way to ameliorate children’s EF skills as well as scholastic outcomes. To investigate possible training effects and to study the impact of SES on scholastic achievement in Brazilian children, we trained 61 children for 5-7 weeks and compared their performance with that of 60 age-matched peers on measures of executive functions and reading. Our results demonstrate a general effect of SES for the dependent variables. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate a positive near transfer effect on a working memory and a selective attention test and a far transfer effect on the words and pseudowords reading measure.

Frequency effects of L2 English on the processing of the passive in L1 Brazilian Portuguese / Efeitos de frequência da L2 inglês no processamento da passiva em L2 português brasileiro

“…Although bilinguals have been observed to show lower response times in the literature in tasks demanding cognitive control (BIALYSTOK; CRAIK; LUK, 2012), they show higher RTs than monolinguals in production tasks, such as the one in Experiment 3, as a consequence of competition from L2 possibilities (KROLL; GOLLAM, 2014). A possible explanation to these contradicting results would be to attribute bilinguals' faster performance not to bilingualism effects per se, but to the socioeconomic status attributed to second language learning possibilities, which, in turn, correlates with better cognitive development (PETRILL et al, 2004;WEISSHEIMER;FUJII;SOUZA, 2019). This, however, is a conjecture that needs further investigation.…”

Cognitive Training in the Domain of Mathematics for Potentially Gifted Children in Primary School

“…Research suggests that focusing on executive functioning in cognitive training in school children has led to transfer to and progression in complex cognitive tasks, such as reading comprehension [12,27] and mathematical performance [29,30].…”

“…In general, research shows that training cognitive functions related explicitly to complex academic competencies can help improve academic abilities, such as reading and arithmetic, in primary school children [10,11]. For example, researchers found that reading comprehension and performance can be improved by cognitive training [11][12][13]. In relation to arithmetic, it was found that a kindergarten programme incorporating embedded and explicit training on metacognition can have positive effects on arithmetic performance in young children [14].…”

“…Often, cognitive training programmes target several cognitive skills and processes, combining general and specific underlying abilities, such as executive functioning and problem solving [12,17,[22][23][24][25][26].…”

Transferability and sustainability of task-switching training in socioeconomically disadvantaged children: a randomized experimental study

“…Some studies (e.g. Traverso et al, 2019;Weissheimer et al, 2019) reported the far-transfer effects of EF training to academic abilities implemented in much longer training protocols (e.g. six sessions for two hours).…”