The flexibility of the intermediate vs. wholistic/analytic styles-an eye tracking study

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the educational system is increasingly incorporating twenty-first-century skills, such as online learning, that require learners to demonstrate cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to quickly reconfigure our minds to meet the task demands. This study investigates the degree of cognitive flexibility of the wholistic-intermediate-analytic dimensions, by classifying patterns of Eye Movements (EM) and behavioural data. Using the E-CSA-W/A test, 113 participants were classified based on their tendency towards a particular style (wholistic/intermediate/analytic). Results indicate that wholistics and intermediates demonstrated greater cognitive flexibility in adapting to the task requirements than the analytics. Analytics were slower at completing the test and made more transitions between Areas of Interest than the other groups. Finally, while the behavioural data demonstrate quantitative differences between the groups, EM provides qualitative information regarding the cognitive process that leads to the response. Theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions are discussed.Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Combination of transcranial direct current stimulation with online cognitive training improves symptoms of Post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19: a case series

Abstract Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) has been associated with cognitive impairment and complains in up to 90% of individuals after the infection by COVID 19. In this context, there is an urgent need to develop treatments for this disorder. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation intervention that can modulate neuronal excitability and improve PASC neurocognitive symptoms. Here, we investigated the effects of this intervention in a case series of four patients with cognitive symptoms using the Assessment of PASC (A-PASC) inventory. The intervention consisted of 20-minute, 2mA, 20 daily sessions of bilateral prefrontal (anodal-left/cathodal-right) tDCS (1x1 Mini-CT, Soterix Medical, New York, NY) plus online cognitive training using the BrainHQ platform (Posit Science, San Francisco, Glenn Smith). Several neuropsychological domains were assessed at baseline and endpoint. After treatment, all participants described cognitive and emotional complaints decreasing. The neuropsychological assessment showed that the participants performed better for delayed and immediate recall in the verbal episodic memory task. They showed an improving trend in lexicon assessment, and in phonemic verbal fluency. The same was observed for the sustained attention task. Also, the participants showed a trend in becoming faster and more accurate in processing speed, and in executive function (inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and time management). These are preliminary results from a pilot study that preceded an ongoing, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of cognitive training combined with sham or active tDCS at University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Research Category and Technology and Methods Clinical Research: 9. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Keywords: transcranial direct current stimulation, cognitive training, cognitive impairment, Post-Acute Sequelae of Sars-Cov2Copyright © 2023

Growth of Executive Functions in Preschool-Age Children During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Empirical Evidence.

Background: During the lockdown for COVID-19, children were limited in a number of activities which are essential for the development of executive functions (play, social interaction, and organized sport). Earlier studies found an increase in executive function issues in children during the pandemic, based on caregivers' reports. Objective: The present study was a pioneer in exploring the dynamics of children's executive function development during the lockdown. Our purpose was to explore the effect of the lockdown on the growth of executive functions in children over a one-year period, as compared to their peers before the pandemic. Design: The sample consisted of two cohorts of children. All the children had been attending the same kindergartens but in different periods of time. The executive functions of both groups were assessed twice, with a year's break in-between (the first group was assessed before the pandemic; the second, during the pandemic). These groups were comparable in gender composition, age, and family's place of residence. Results: The results have confirmed concerns about the slower growth of executive functioning in children during the lockdown versus their peers before the pandemic, especially for cognitive flexibility and working memory. Inhibition was not significantly affected by the lockdown. Moderation analysis showed that the lockdown impacted girls differently than boys in terms of working memory. The negative effect of social restrictions on working memory was significantly higher in females. Conclusion: Our findings illuminate the negative effects the pandemic-related social restrictions had on the growth of children's cognitive flexibility and working memory. For working memory, the effect of social isolation varied depending on the child's gender.

The role of cognitive flexibility and hope in the relationship between loneliness and psychological adjustment: a moderated mediation model

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic caused people to suffer from secondary problems such as social isolation and loneliness as well as experiencing anxiety about catching and spreading the virus. Existing research emphasizes the roles of cognitive flexibility and hope for psychological adjustment but the mediating and moderating mechanisms have not yet been researched widely. Therefore, this study examined whether hope mediated the relationship between loneliness and psychological adjustment problems and whether cognitive flexibility moderated this mediation effect of hope in the relationship between loneliness and psychological adjustment problems during the COVID-19 pandemic curfew in Turkey. Methods: A total of 512 Turkish students and young adults completed UCLA Loneliness Scale, Brief Psychological Adjustment Scale, Dispositional Hope Scale, and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory for this cross-sectional study. Results: The results indicated that loneliness had a significant and positive predictive effect on the psychological adjustment problems and that this relationship was partially mediated by hope. Further, psychological flexibility moderated the relationship between loneliness and hope. Conclusions: The current study contributes a better understanding of the influence of loneliness on psychological adjustment, especially during the COVID-19 curfew period. KEY POINTS: What is already known about this topic: (1) Loneliness is positively associated with psychological adjustment problems. (2) Hope proved to play an important role in psychological adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic. (3) Cognitive flexibility is positively related to hope. What this topic adds: (1) Hope mediates the relationship between loneliness and psychological adjustment problems during the COVID-19 curfew. (2) The association between loneliness and hope is moderated by cognitive flexibility, such that the association becomes weaker for those who report higher levels of cognitive flexibility. (3) The indirect effect of loneliness on psychological adjustment problems via hope is conditional on the levels of cognitive flexibility. © 2022 Australian Psychological Society.

Not Getting Vaccinated? It Is a Matter of Problem-Solving Abilities and Socio-Cognitive Polarization.

The anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the United States provided a significant contribution to the control of the virus spread. Despite the recommendations by public health institutions, vaccine skepticism and hesitancy contributed to low vaccine uptake, thus possibly disrupting the management of preventable diseases associated with the COVID-19 infection. The process that led individuals to accept COVID-19 vaccines required the ability to gather, synthesize, and weigh-up information within a novel, dynamically changing, complex, and ambiguous context. To deal with such complexity, we hypothesized that both the ability of reflection and flexible adaptation played a fundamental role. Based on previous research on cognitive predictors of vaccine refusal, we decided to investigate the combined role of two constructs, namely, problem-solving skills and socio-cognitive polarization (SCP), on vaccine acceptance and uptake. Two-hundred-seventy-seven US participants completed an online survey aimed to measure problem-solving ability, through a rebus puzzles task, and SCP, through a composite measure of absolutist thinking, political conservatism, and xenophobia. Mediation analyses indicated that SCP mediated the association between problem-solving ability and vaccine acceptance, so lower problem-solving abilities associated with higher polarization predicted vaccine rejection. Thus, our findings suggested that low problem-solving skills may represent a risk factor for COVID-19 vaccine refusal, with cognitive and social rigidity playing a crucial role in undermining the anti-COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Cognitive flexibility and grit during times of crisis for Turkish EFL teachers

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the abrupt transition to virtual learning environments based on Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) has posed significant challenges for teachers at all levels of education. The challenges of the pandemic revealed the significance of cognitive flexibility as a cognitive skill and grit as a noncognitive skill for teachers to adapt to the ERT conditions and to sustain their passion and perseverance. This study investigated whether the cognitive flexibility and grit levels of Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers significantly differed based on demographic variables and also explored how cognitive flexibility as a cognitive skill and grit as a noncognitive skill were associated with each other. Using a sequential, exploratory, mixed-method design, qualitative, and quantitative data were collected from 589 Turkish EFL teachers during the school closures. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, and structural equation modeling was used to determine the relationship between cognitive flexibility and grit. The findings showed that cognitive flexibility and grit differed more in terms of profession-related variables (teaching experience and school type) than personal demographic variables (age and gender). Also, structural equation modeling showed that both cognitive flexibility and grit significantly correlated with each other as a novel finding contributing to the literature. The qualitative findings showed that teachers used cognitive flexibility and grit-based strategies to overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic. © 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

The flexibility of the intermediate vs. wholistic/analytic styles - an eye tracking study

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the educational system is increasingly incorporating twenty-first-century skills, such as online learning, that require learners to demonstrate cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to quickly reconfigure our minds to meet the task demands. This study investigates the degree of cognitive flexibility of the wholistic-intermediate-analytic dimensions, by classifying patterns of Eye Movements (EM) and behavioural data. Using the E-CSA-W/A test, 113 participants were classified based on their tendency towards a particular style (wholistic/intermediate/analytic). Results indicate that wholistics and intermediates demonstrated greater cognitive flexibility in adapting to the task requirements than the analytics. Analytics were slower at completing the test and made more transitions between Areas of Interest than the other groups. Finally, while the behavioural data demonstrate quantitative differences between the groups, EM provides qualitative information regarding the cognitive process that leads to the response. Theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions are discussed.

Aggressive behavior, boredom, and protective factors among college students during closed-off management of the COVID-19 pandemic in China.

Background: Chinese colleges have implemented strict closed-off management in response to the outbreak of a new variant of the new coronavirus, Omicron. But such management measures may lead to more aggressive behavior. The study aimed to determine the associations between boredom and aggressive behavior with aggression and to examine the impact of boredom on aggression through the moderating role of cognitive flexibility. Methods: The Multidimensional State Boredom Scale, the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory were applied to a sample of 719 college students who were in a closed-off management environment. Results: For individuals with high cognitive flexibility, the relationship between state boredom and proactive aggression was not significant. The relationship between state boredom and proactive aggression was significantly positively correlated for individuals with low cognitive flexibility, especially low substitutability. Cognitive flexibility has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between state boredom and reactive aggression. Conclusion: The findings highlighted the importance of boredom as a potential risk factor for aggression, while cognitive flexibility appears as a potential protective factor.

Prolonged Physiological Stress Is Associated With a Lower Rate of Exploratory Learning That Is Compounded by Depression.

BACKGROUND: Stress is a major risk factor for depression, and both are associated with important changes in decision-making patterns. However, decades of research have only weakly connected physiological measurements of stress to the subjective experience of depression. Here, we examined the relationship between prolonged physiological stress, mood, and explore-exploit decision making in a population navigating a dynamic environment under stress: health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We measured hair cortisol levels in health care workers who completed symptom surveys and performed an explore-exploit restless-bandit decision-making task; 32 participants were included in the final analysis. Hidden Markov and reinforcement learning models assessed task behavior. RESULTS: Participants with higher hair cortisol exhibited less exploration (r = -0.36, p = .046). Higher cortisol levels predicted less learning during exploration (ß = -0.42, false discovery rate [FDR]-corrected p [pFDR] = .022). Importantly, mood did not independently correlate with cortisol concentration, but rather explained additional variance (ß = 0.46, pFDR = .022) and strengthened the relationship between higher cortisol and lower levels of exploratory learning (ß = -0.47, pFDR = .022) in a joint model. These results were corroborated by a reinforcement learning model, which revealed less learning with higher hair cortisol and low mood (ß = -0.67, pFDR = .002). CONCLUSIONS: These results imply that prolonged physiological stress may limit learning from new information and lead to cognitive rigidity, potentially contributing to burnout. Decision-making measures link subjective mood states to measured physiological stress, suggesting that they should be incorporated into future biomarker studies of mood and stress conditions.

Direct and indirect relationships between cognitive flexibility and COVID-19 related psychological distress: The mediating role of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies

Objective: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are remarkable on individuals' mental health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an increase in mental health problems and psychological distress in uninfected healthy people. The present study aimed to examine the mediator role of maladaptive cognitive emotion regula-tion strategies in the relationship between cognitive fle-xibility and COVID-19 related psychological distress experienced during the current pandemic. Method: The sample consisted of 351 young adults (86% female and 14% male) who were not infected with COVID-19 aged between 18 to 25 years old. Participants completed the self-report questionnaires, including the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and COVID-19 Related Psychological Distress Scale. Mediation analysis estimated total, indi-rect, and direct effects between cognitive flexibility and COVID-19 related psychological distress. Results: The correlation analyses showed that cognitive flexibility -control dimension was negatively associated with both COVID-19 related psychological distress and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Also, maladap-tive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and COVID-19 related psychological distress was found to be posi-tively correlated. In the study sample, the results of the bootstrap mediation indicated that maladaptive cogni-tive emotion regulation strategies, including self-blame, acceptance, rumination, catastrophizing, and blaming others, fully mediated the relationship between cogni-tive flexibility -control and COVID-19 related psycholog-ical distress. Discussion: Our findings would help psy-chological interventions designed for COVID-19 unin-fected healthy people who have lower-level cognitive flexibility -control dimension by highlighting the promi-nence that the fewer people use maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, the less they feel COVID-19 related psychological distress.

The role of slack resources and managerial capabilities in early and late internationalization: a configurational approach

Internationalization requires a distinct set of managerial capabilities and company resources. Despite a call for examining the impact of cognitive capabilities on international entrepreneurship, only a few studies have attempted to do so. Since international entrepreneurship starts with opportunity recognition, attention should be paid to this first step in the internationalization process. However, the ability to recognize international entrepreneurial opportunity is not enough by itself, but rather it needs to be supported by other cognitive factors. COVID-19 has put specific pressure on entrepreneurs highlighting their ability to actively respond to changes and persist under uncertainty. This research aims to examine the difference in drivers of early and late internationalization and their impact on international performance by analyzing 50 Finnish small- and medium-sized enterprises via fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The results suggest two distinct configurations that are connected to early internationalization and one configuration that is connected to late internationalization.

What can you do with a bottle and a hanger? Students with high cognitive flexibility give more ideas in the presence of ambient noise

Creativity has become a favourable skill to develop in higher education due to its value in society. Ambient noise during creative performance has traditionally been regarded as an environmental stressor and distractor, but recent findings suggest a positive impact of ambient noise on creative performance. It is still unclear what drives these inconsistent findings and whether individual differences between students explain the differential impact of noise on their performance. This study investigated the impact of ambient noise on divergent thinking performance in undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic, when common learning spaces were restricted and people were instructed to work from home. It also explored how cognitive flexibility (e.g., the ability to switch between different tasks and explore different strategies to problems) interacted with the impact of noise. Forty-two undergraduates completed an adult computer-based version of the Dimensional Card Change Sort task (DCCS) (a measure of cognitive flexibility) in silence, and the Alternative Uses Task (a measure of divergent thinking) in silence and in ambient noise displayed through headphones. On average, participants gave more ideas in the presence of ambient noise than in silence, but these ideas were not more original. Furthermore, the impact of noise interacted with cognitive flexibility. Participants who were more efficient at the DCCS (suggesting better cognitive flexibility) gave more ideas in noise. These findings can help to inform educational institutes and students on the influence the physical environment might have on divergent thinking.

Personality, Cognitive Flexibility, and Motivation among Medical Professionals during Covid-19 Pandemic: A Correlational Study

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare professionals worldwide, by bringing changes in both their personal and professional lives. Motivation has become a driving factor along with cognitive flexibility during such demanding situations. Little importance has been given to the personality dimension while assessing these aspects, especially in the Indian context. The principal aim of this paper is to understand the relationship between personality, cognitive flexibility, and motivation among medical professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic. A correlational research design was used to conduct the research, and a snowball sampling technique was used to collect the data from a sample size of 204 medical professionals, consisting of 101 nurses and 103 doctors, working as frontline workers. The variables were assessed using the Neo Five-Factor Inventory, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, the Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Questionnaire. A nonparametric test of correlation was used. The research findings revealed that among medical professionals, certain personality factors, cognitive flexibility, and motivation share a significant relationship. Cognitive flexibility and motivation were found to be significantly correlated. There was no significant difference in cognitive flexibility and motivation among doctors and nurses. There was a significant difference in neuroticism between the groups. The findings will help in gaining a clearer insight into the needs of medical professionals in India, by facilitating the development of appropriate training interventions for medical professionals to be better equipped for similar crisis situations in the future.

Dynamic Interactive Social Cognition Training in Virtual Reality (DiSCoVR) for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A feasibility study

Background: Social cognitive difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can affect the daily lives of people with ASD profoundly, impacting the development and maintenance of meaningful social relations. Social cognition training (SCT) is commonly used for improving social functioning, but lacks ecological validity and the ability to effectively mimic social situations. Development of virtual reality (VR) interventions, focusing on enhancing social cognition, could add to the effectiveness of SCT within ASD care, by offering a safe, interactive and practical training setting, where generalization of knowledge and skills to the real-world are promoted. In this paper, our primary aim is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptance by participants and therapists of the Dynamic Interactive Social Cognition Method: Training in Virtual Reality (DiSCoVR) protocol as developed for adults with schizophrenic spectrum disorder (SSD), adapted for ASD (DiSCoVR-A). 26 participants, aged 18–63, took part in a pilot study. 22 participants completed baseline and post-assessment, including primary outcome evaluation assessment through a semi-structured interview. Secondary measures focused on social cognition, emotion recognition, mental flexibility, social anxiety, empathy and social responsiveness and were assessed at baseline (T0), post-treatment (T1), and at follow-up (T2) sixteen weeks after completion of the intervention. Results: Our results show that the majority of participant and therapists found the VR intervention acceptable and feasible, as reported in evaluation questionnaires and interviews. Conclusion: These preliminary findings are promising;however, controlled research is needed to further investigate the effectiveness of VR within social cognition training for adults with ASD.

Predicting COVID-19 anxiety based on cognitive flexibility mediated by self-compassion in students

The aim of this study was to predict covid-19 anxiety based on cognitive flexibility, considering the mediating role of selfcompassion in students. The research method was descriptive-correlation and specifically structural equations. The statistical population in the present study included all male high school students in the second academic year 2020-2021 District 3 of Kermanshah, from which 322 students were selected as a research sample using multi-stage cluster sampling. To collect data, corona disease anxiety Alipour et al (2020) questionnaire, Neff (2003) selfcompassion questionnaire and Dennis and Vander Wal (2010) cognitive flexibility questionnaire were used .Data analysis was performed by structural equation method using Amos software. The results showed that cognitive flexibility with mediating role of selfcompassion (β = -0.16) is indirectly related to covid-19 anxiety, which is statistically with 99% confidence with is significant (p≤0.01).Also, between direct relationships, flexibility (β = -0.45) and self-compassion (β = -0.43) are directly and significantly related to covid-19 anxiety, and cognitive flexibility is directly related to self-compassion (β = 0.38). All these relationships are statistically significant with 99% confidence (p≤ 0.01). © 2022 International Journal of Health Sciences. All rights reserved.

Effectiveness of Digital Cognitive Behavior Therapy for the Treatment of Insomnia: Spillover Effects of dCBT.

The effects of digital Cognitive Behavior Therapy for insomnia (dCBT-i) on sleep quality have been previously demonstrated but the spillover effects on fatigue, flow (a state of immersion in activities of interest), and cognitive flexibility remain unclear. The current study examined the effectiveness of dCBT-i. A total of 97 college students (20.96 ± 1.87 years, 73.1% female students) were randomly selected from a shortlist and divided into sleep intervention (n = 39), conventional education (n = 37), and healthy control (n = 21) groups. Task switching paradigm, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Flow Experience Scale (FES), and the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (CPSQI) were measured pre- and post-intervention. Results show that the sleep quality of the intervention group improved, and fatigue was relieved. Participants in the sleep intervention group had increased flow experience scores post-intervention and improved cognitive flexibility. The control group's sleep quality deteriorated and fatigue level increased. dCBT-i can not only achieve a significant improvement in sleep quality and reduce fatigue, but also improve learning abilities, quality of life, flow, and cognitive flexibility. Future research should pay attention to indicators such as work efficiency, sedative use, and the durability and stability of such effects.

Effects of Negative Emotions and Cognitive Characteristics on Impulse Buying During COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously disrupted the individual buying habits along with their consumption patterns. Previous studies indicated that anxiety and depression were related to impulse buying. However, no research has explored the mechanism possibly underlying the association between anxiety, depression, and impulse buying. Based on the regulatory focus theory and the emotion-cognition-behavior loop, this study aimed to examine the impacts of negative emotions on impulse buying and the mediating role of cognitive characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2021, 734 Chinese undergraduates were recruited by cluster sampling and they completed self-report measures of anxiety, depression, intolerance of uncertainty, cognitive flexibility, and impulse buying. Results showed that impulse buying was positively associated with anxiety, depression, and intolerance of uncertainty, while it was negatively associated with cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility fully mediated the effects of anxiety and depression on cognitive facet of impulse buying. Meanwhile, intolerance of uncertainty fully mediated the effects of anxiety and depression on affective facet of impulse buying. Overall, this study shows that different pathways can explain how anxiety and depression exacerbate two aspects of impulse buying, and it highlights the importance of cognitive characteristics for the link between negative emotions and impulse buying. Intervention programs should focus on increasing cognitive flexibility and tolerance to uncertainty of high-risk individuals, so as to strengthen their adaptive purchase behaviors.

Does cognitive flexibility change the nature of the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and psychological symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey?

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the mental health of the general population worldwide. The study aimed to determine the associations of the intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and cognitive flexibility (CF) with a variety of psychological symptoms and to examine the impact of IU on psychological symptoms through the moderating role of CF. The Brief Symptom Inventory, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12, and Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire were applied to a sample of 3004 adults living in Turkey. The results of the analysis indicated that CF moderated the effect of IU on psychology symptoms. The slope analysis revealed a weakening association between IU and psychological symptoms with the introduction of a high CF level introduced to the model. The findings highlighted the importance of IU as a potential risk factor for developing psychological symptoms while CF appears as a potential protective factor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning for adaptation and 21st-century skills: Evidence of pupils’ flexibility in Rwandan primary schools

Recent global challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the growing importance of children learning 21st-century skills for adaptation and flexibility. Competence-based curricula encourage creativity and problem solving but little is known about their development in low-income countries or relationship with conventional academic outcomes like literacy. This study examines pupils’ cognitive flexibility, the underlying basis for many 21st-century skills, in Rwandan primary schools and finds little association with their reading abilities. The findings advance international knowledge regarding child development in resource-poor contexts, suggest a need for more holistic measurement and offer a new approach for understanding learners’ adaptability.

The relationship between cognitive flexibility, depression, and work performance: Employee assessments using cognitive flexibility tests

Background Cognitive flexibility is a frontal lobe function, and some scholars have indicated that it is linked to depression. The Cognitive Flexibility Test (CFT) is a neuropsychological test that can easily and promptly measure cognitive flexibility within a short amount of time. This study focuses on healthy younger workers to determine the associations between their cognitive flexibility, depression, and performance at work. Methods The absolute absenteeism and the absolute presenteeism of a group of 80 regular employees were measured, and the employees were administered the Verbal Fluency Test (VTF), the CFT-A and CFT-B, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-2), and the World Health Organization Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (WHO-HPQ). Google Forms were used to measure the BDI-2, absolute absenteeism, and absolute presenteeism, and online interviews were conducted on Zoom to collect answers to the CFT and the Verbal Fluency Test (VFT). Results No significant age-related differences appeared in the number of responses obtained for the CFT-A and CFT-B from subjects grouped according to the decades they represented, ranging from the 20s to the 50s. In addition, the CFT-A and CFT-B did not indicate significant correlations between the BDI-2 and absenteeism and presenteeism. Limitations Small sample, online vs. in person assessments due to COVID-19. Conclusion The results suggest that the function of cognitive flexibility is relatively stable and is unaffected by age brackets. The study also found no links between the cognitive flexibility of healthy young workers, the state of depression, or their work performance.