Validation of new tablet-based problem-solving tasks in primary school students.

Various factors influence academic achievement of students including cognitive abilities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between academic achievement and cognitive ability of secondary school students. Academic achievement or academic performance is the outcome of education to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals. 320 adolescents were recruited in this study, with respect to gender, locale and type of school from secondary schools of Amritsar district. The study falls under the domain of descriptive research. Researcher has used stratified random sampling technique to study academic achievement in relation to cognitive ability among secondary school students. Cognitive style inventory by Jha (2001) was used to study cognitive ability of the students. Scores of the previous class were taken for the academic achievement. Statistically significant mean difference was found in scores of academic achievement of secondary school students with respect to different cognitive abilities. The mean score of students with integrated style was higher than followed by systematic, split, undifferentiated and intuitive style. So teacher should focus on the students whose academic achievement is low and use different teaching materials like audio- visual, chart, real objects, and different teaching methods and teach according to the abilities of students which will help students to be successful in academics. Academic success and cognitive ability are positively associated, so schools should give pupils the chance to develop their cognitive abilities through reasoning classes and quiz competitions.

This study examines whether people who have similar cognitive ability, vocational interests, and personality characteristics choose similar jobs. Subjects were 139 job applicants at a private employment agency: 49 individuals applied for general laborer positions, 48 for bookkeeping positions, and 42 for secretarial positions. As expected, people who had similar cognitive ability and vocational interests chose similar jobs. Contrary to expectations, however, persons who shared similar personality characteristics did not choose similar jobs. The results suggest implications for personnel selection, attraction-selection theory, and applications of human resource management technologies.

The goal of this study was to investigate cognitive style (the visualizer–verbalizer dimension) and cognitive ability (spatial and verbal abilities) in terms of corresponding resource use behavior. The study further examined the potential link between cognitive style and cognitive ability based on observable behavior. A total of 67 university students participated in the study by completing an online survey containing a series of questionnaires, tests, and tasks, which assessed their cognitive style, cognitive ability, and resource use behavior. Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that cognitive style in general predicts resource use behavior. The findings also showed that spatial ability, particularly lower spatial ability, predicts resource use behavior. This study thus contributes to the literature with theory-based, empirical evidence that cognitive ability is reflected in cognitive style. This study further provides information needed to better understand the interplay between individuals’ cognitive style and cognitive ability and how these may be addressed in the design and implementation of learning environments.

The paper conceptually defines and empirically investigates the density of work experience along with individual characteristics (cognitive ability, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) and examine their influence on Human Resource (HR) competencies. 274 HR executives from diverse industry background and their supervisors participated in the data collection efforts spread over three phases. Data analyses revealed three key findings (i) executives’ density of work experience positively relates to HR competencies, (ii) executives’ cognitive ability is the strongest predictor of the positive relationship to HR competencies, and (iii) executives with high Conscientiousness tend to achieve levels of density of work experience. Relative weight analyses reinforce that cognitive ability and density of work experience are the most prominent predictors of HR competencies. Implications for practice are discussed.

Studies that investigate cognitive ability in African children and estimate the general cognitive abilities of African adults tend to work with existing models of intelligence. However, African philosophy and empirical studies in cross-cultural psychology have demonstrated that conceptualizations of human cognitive ability vary with location. This paper begins with the assumption that the existing Anglo-American models of cognitive abilities are valuable but limited in their capacity to account for the various conceptualizations of valued cognitive abilities in different human societies. On the basis of this assumption, I employ extant empirical evidence generated through ethnographic studies across Africa to formulate what an African model of valued human cognitive ability ought to be. The output of this formulation has been so christened a model of valued cognitive ability in order to draw attention to the fact that models of cognitive abilities have currency and values in each human society. This value allocation is expected to influence which elements of cognitive ability each human society will promote and develop. In addition, implications for theory, research and praxes are discussed.

Across the lifespan, the performance in problem-solving tasks varies strongly, owing to age-related variation in cognitive abilities as well as the motivation to engage in a task. Non-human primates provide an evolutionary perspective on human cognitive and motivational ageing, as they lack an insight into their own limited lifetime, and ageing trajectories are not affected by customs and societal norms. To test age-related variation in inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and persistence, we presented Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), living at La Forêt des Singes in Rocamadour (France), with three problem-solving tasks. We conducted 297 trials with 143 subjects aged 2–30 years. We found no effect of age on success and latency to succeed in the inhibitory control task. In the cognitive flexibility task, 21 out of 99 monkeys were able to switch their strategy, but there was no evidence for an effect of age. Yet, the persistence in the motivation task as well as the overall likelihood to participate in any of the tasks declined with increasing age. These results suggest that motivation declines earlier than the cognitive abilities assessed in this study, corroborating the notion that non-human primates and humans show similar changes in motivation in old age.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution of the primate ageing process'.

Previous research involving Hong Kong Chinese parents and their children showed that parental home involvement, beliefs of their children’s cognitive ability and their expectations for academic achievement mediated the relationship between their children’s cognitive ability and school achievement scores. This mediation effect was interpreted as the cognitive-affect model of academic achievement. The current research confirms the generalizability of the findings and tests the hypothesis that there are cultural differences in the mediation effects with the inclusion of non-Chinese students and their parents as a comparison group. The responses from 103 Chinese speaking (CS) and 163 non-Chinese speaking (NCS) primary students and parents from two schools in Hong Kong were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Student measures included self-concept, cognitive ability and academic achievement in mathematics, English and Chinese. Parent measures included home involvement, beliefs of their child’s cognitive ability and expectations of academic success. Initial model showed that parental expectations mediate the link between cognitive ability and academic achievement for both CS and NCS groups, with parental involvement predicting English achievement for only the NCS group. After the inclusion of academic self-concept, the model showed that CS parental expectations also mediate the link between self-concept and academic achievement. However, the model showed that the parental expectations of NCS play a lesser role in mediating the link between academic self-concept and their children’s academic achievement. Despite the differences, the results provide evidence for the generalizability of the cognitive-affect model.

The article is devoted to the method of research activity as one of the most effective pedagogical technologies. The article discusses the concept of research methods for primary school students, its tasks, and the principles of organization that allow students to develop their own skills and apply them to develop creative and cognitive abilities in Russian language lessons.

The present study examines some relationships pertaining to socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability patterns of primary school children. Specifically the purpose of the study was to explore the relative merits of an hierarchical theory of two levels of cognitive ability, in contrast to a process scheme, positing two parallel modes of coding information. The subjects were 120 grade 4 primary school students. Analyses of the data are supportive of a simultaneous-successive process distinction and provide little confirmation for the hierarchical model. Some suggestions for the apparent lack of support for the hierarchical model are presented and implications for future research are considered.

Individual variation in mathematical skills can be ascribed to differences in cognitive ability, but also to students’ emotional experiences of mathematics, such as enjoyment and anxiety. The current study investigated how the interplay of working memory with math anxiety and enjoyment explains mathematical performance in primary school students. We also explored whether these relations differed with the type of math test and students’ age. Using mixed effect models, we reanalyzed data from 4471 Dutch primary school students (grades 2–6) who had completed two computerized working memory tasks, had filled out a questionnaire on math emotions, and had completed two math tests: story problems and speeded arithmetic. Findings showed that working memory, anxiety, and enjoyment were linear (but not curvilinear) predictors of performance on both tests, while some relations were stronger for the math (story)-problem-solving test. Higher math anxiety negatively impacted performance more strongly for students with stronger working memory skills, but only on the arithmetic test. No interaction between working memory and enjoyment was found. The relation between math anxiety and math performance increased with grade level, but no other age-related changes were found. Interpretations and recommendations focus on situated views on learning and emotion.

Introduction

The effects of smartphone addiction on learning: A meta-analysis

Students’ academic success is influenced not only by their cognitive abilities and knowledge, but also non-cognitive factors. Studies show growing disinterest in science and math among students, especially females. Therefore this study aimed explore in depth the subject-specific motivation, mindset, mindfulness, cognitive persistence, mastery pleasure and subject-specific self-concept of 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> grade students in relation to school performance by grades and by genders. Through student responses obtained by filling out questionnaires the results revealed a lot of correlations among the self-concept, motivational and other variables. It means that self-concepts and motivations connected to school subjects have significant relationship with the examined non-cognitive factors. The results also showed that the girls’ mathematical self-concept is already less positive than boys’ by grade 4. Furthermore the results of the ordinal regression analysis indicate that in the case of girls the predictors of academic achievement are more diversified, including more factors.

Adaptive number knowledge: Exploring the foundations of adaptivity with whole-number arithmetic

Executive function (EF) is a key cognitive process that emerges in early childhood and facilitates children's ability to control their own behavior. Individual differences in EF skills early in life are predictive of quality-of-life outcomes 30 years later (Moffitt etal., 2011). What changes in the brain give rise to this critical cognitive ability? Traditionally, frontal cortex growth is thought to underlie changes in cognitive control (Bunge & Zelazo, 2006; Moriguchi & Hiraki, 2009). However, more recent data highlight the importance of long-range cortical interactions between frontal and posterior brain regions. Here, we test the hypothesis that developmental changes in EF skills reflect changes in how posterior and frontal brain regions work together. Results show that children who fail a "hard" version of an EF task and who are thought to have an immature frontal cortex, show robust frontal activity in an "easy" version of the task. We show how this effect can arise via posterior brain regions that provide on-the-job training for the frontal cortex, effectively teaching the frontal cortex adaptive patterns of brain activity on "easy" EF tasks. In this case, frontal cortex activation can be seen as both the cause and the consequence of rule switching. Results also show that older children have differential posterior cortical activation on "easy" and "hard" tasks that reflects continued refinement of brain networks even in skilled children. These data set the stage for new training programs to foster the development of EF skills in at-risk children.