Executive Functions as Predictors of School Performance and Social Relationships: Primary and Secondary School Students.

This study examined the relationship between executive functions (EFs) and school performance in primary and secondary school students aged 8 to 13 years (N = 146, M = 10.4, 45.8% girls). EFs were evaluated using the Trail Making Test (TMT), Verbal Fluency (VF), and the Stroop Test. Students' GPAs and teachers' assessment of academic skills were used to measure school performance. To evaluate the students' social behavior, participants were asked to rate all their classmates' prosocial behavior and nominate three students with whom they preferred to do school activities; teachers also provided evaluations of students' social skills. EF measures explained 41% (p = .003, f 2 = .694) of variability in school performance and 29% (p = .005, f 2 = .401) of variance in social behavior in primary school students. The predictive power of EFs was found to be lower for secondary school students, although the TMT showed significant prediction and explained 13% (p = .004, f 2 = .149) of variance in school performance and 15% (p = .008, f 2 = .176) in peer ratings of prosocial behavior. This paper discusses the relevance of EFs in the school environment and their different predictive power in primary and secondary school students.

Normas de asociación léxica e índices psicolingüísticos de 407 palabras en español en una muestra latinoamericana / Lexical associative norms and psycholinguistic indexes of 407 Spanish words in a latin american sample

El diseño de tareas experimentales en psicología y lingüística suele requerir el uso de estímulos con características y propiedades estandarizadas, con el objetivo de predecir con mayor exactitud el impacto de su presentación. Las normas de asociación léxica son instrumentos que determinan la fuerza de asociación que existe entre dos conceptos. El método más común para su construcción es mediante la evocación libre de un concepto ante la presentación de una palabra clave. El objetivo de este trabajo fue construir normas de asociación léxica para 407 palabras en español. Participaron del estudio 800 estudiantes de la Ciudad de Córdoba, Argentina. Se analizó cuantitativamente el número de respuestas válidas, en blanco y no válidas, número de asociados por ítem, y se añadió una clasificación cualitativa según la fuerza de asociación. Adicionalmente, se presentaron un conjunto de índices psicolingüísticos para una mejor descripción de los ítems utilizados. Se realizó un análisis de correlaciones que demostró una fuerte relación negativa entre la frecuencia del primer y segundo asociado y el número de asociados por cada ítem. Este estudio pretende ser de suma utilidad en investigaciones de psicología y lingüística que requieran su consulta para la construcción de instrumentos de evaluación (AU)

The design of experimental tasks in psychology and linguistics requires using stimulus with properties and characteristics in standardized values. This allows predicting with higher accuracy the impact of the stimulus presentation. The lexical associative norms are instruments that determine the strength of association between two concepts. The most common method to construct these norms is to take a free response from a presentation of a cue word. The main goal of this study was to construct lexical associative norms of 407 Spanish words. 800 students from Ciudad de Córdoba, Argentina, participated in the study. Quantitative analyses were performed taking into account the number of valid answers, blank and non valid answers, and number of associates per item. A qualitative classification was performed according to the strength of association. Additionally, it is presented a group of psycholinguistic indexes for a better description of the items used. Correlation analysis demonstrated a strong and negative relation between the frequency of first and second associations and the number of associations per item. This study pretends to be highly useful in research in psychology and linguistic where it is required consulting the norms presented to the design of evaluation instruments (AU)

Conectividad cerebral en la regulación emocional: la solución de problemas emocionales / Brain connectivity in emotional regulation: the emotional solving problems

La solución de problemas emocionales es un mecanismo de regulación emocional que utiliza estrategias cognitivo-lingüísticas para reducir el impacto afectivo de una situación y lograr un objetivo propuesto. Es considerado un mecanismo saludable junto con la revaluación, a diferencia de la supresión y la rumiación. Estudios con técnicas de neuroimágenes han propuesto áreas cerebrales asociadas al funcionamiento de los diferentes mecanismos de regulación emocional. En este trabajo se propuso investigar los gradientes de conectividad cerebral de sustancia blanca asociados a la solución de problemas emocionales, con el objetivo de proponer una red de conectividad neuronal de este mecanismo de regulación emocional. Para evaluar la efectividad de la solución de problemas emocionales se utilizó una tarea conductual desarrollada recientemente basada en la recuperación semántica esforzada con estímulos de alto impacto afectivo. Participaron del estudio 32 mujeres jóvenes (M= 24,34; DS=5,24). Se obtuvieron coeficientes de correlación de Pearson entre las medidas del porcentaje de acierto de la tarea conductual y la anisotropía fraccional de los fascículos de sustancia blanca de interés. Los resultados proponen un red neuronal de solución de problemas emocionales en la que participarían principalmente el Fascículo Arqueado y Fronto Occipital Inferior del hemisferio izquierdo, cruciales en la implementación de estrategias de carácter léxico y semántico para la disminución del impacto afectivo (AU)

Emotional solving problems is an emotional regulation mechanism that implements cognitive-linguistics strategies to reduce the affective impact in a situation and to accomplish a proposed objective. Together with the reappraisal, it is considered a healthy mechanism, in difference with suppression and rumination. Researches that have used neuroimaging techniques have proposed cerebral areas associated to the functioning of the different emotional regulation mechanisms. The objective of this research was to study the brain connectivity gradients of white matter associated to emotional solving problems, to propose a brain connectivity network of this emotional regulation mechanism. The efficacy of emotional solving problems was measured with a behavioral task recently developed, based on semantic effortful retrieval with high affective impact stimulus. 32 young women (M= 24,34; DS=5,24) participated of the study. Correlations of Pearson were performed between accuracy measures of the behavioral task and fractional anisotropy of the white matter fascicles of interest. The results propose a brain connectivity network of emotional solving problems with the main participation of the Arcuate and Fronto Occipital Inferior fascicles of left hemisphere, both crucial in the implementation of lexical and semantic strategies to the reduction of affective impact (AU)

Executive functions as predictors of school performance and social relationships: primary and secondary school students

This study examined the relationship between executive functions (EFs) and school performance in primary and secondary school students aged 8 to 13 years (N = 146, M = 10.4, 45.8% girls). EFs were evaluated using the Trail Making Test (TMT), Verbal Fluency (VF), and the Stroop Test. Students’ GPAs and teachers’ assessment of academic skills were used to measure school performance. To evaluate the students’ social behavior, participants were asked to rate all their classmates’ prosocial behavior and nominate three students with whom they preferred to do school activities; teachers also provided evaluations of students’ social skills. EF measures explained 41% (p = .003, f2 = .694) of variability in school performance and 29% (p = .005, f2 = .401) of variance in social behavior in primary school students. The predictive power of EFs was found to be lower for secondary school students, although the TMT showed significant prediction and explained 13% (p = .004, f2 = .149) of variance in school performance and 15% (p = .008, f2 = .176) in peer ratings of prosocial behavior. This paper discusses the relevance of EFs in the school environment and their different predictive power in primary and secondary school students (AU)

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Academic performance and social competence of adolescents: predictions based on effortful control and empathy.

This study explored the predictive power of effortful control (EC) on empathy, academic performance, and social competence in adolescents. We obtained self-report measures of EC and dispositional empathy in 359 students (197 girls and 162 boys) aged between 12 and 14 years. Each student provided information about the prosocial behavior of the rest of his/her classmates and completed a sociogram. At the end of the school year, we calculated the mean grade of each student and the teacher responsible for each class completed a questionnaire on the academic skills of his/her students. The study confirmed the existence of a structural equation model (SEM) in which EC directly predicted academic performance and social competence. Additionally, empathic concern partially mediated the effect of EC on social competence. Finally, social competence significantly predicted academic performance. The article discusses the practical applications of the model proposed.

Academic performance and social competence of adolescents: prediction based on effortful control and empathy

This study explored the predictive power of effortful control (EC) on empathy, academic performance, and social competence in adolescents. We obtained self-report measures of EC and dispositional empathy in 359 students (197 girls and 162 boys) aged between 12 and 14 years. Each student provided information about the prosocial behavior of the rest of his/her classmates and completed a sociogram. At the end of the school year, we calculated the mean grade of each student and the teacher responsible for each class completed a questionnaire on the academic skills of his/her students. The study confirmed the existence of a structural equation model (SEM) in which EC directly predicted academic performance and social competence. Additionally, empathic concern partially mediated the effect of EC on social competence. Finally, social competence significantly predicted academic performance. The article discusses the practical applications of the model proposed (AU)

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Control ejecutivo y fluidez verbal en población infantil: Medidas cuantitativas, cualitativas y temporales / Executive control and verbal fluency in child population: Quantitative, qualitative and temporal measures

Para evaluar la evocación de palabras asociadas bajo una consigna de prueba de fluidez verbal (PFV) se tienen en cuenta la cantidad de palabras producidas, las asociaciones categoriales y fonológicas entre ellas y el tiempo en que son evocadas. A continuación se presenta un estudio que se realizó aplicando PFV semánticas y fonológicas en una población infantil (8 - 12 años) de la ciudad de Granada (España), que tuvo por objetivos: (1) revisar las tradicionales medidas en PFV, (2) actualizar los índices temporales de medición y (3) presentar combinaciones de éstas con el fin de establecer con mayor precisión la participación del control ejecutivo en PFV. Se encontraron resultados significativos entre los que se destaca que la combinación entre la medida temporal de evocación de palabras conjuntas y la cualitativa de palabras en relación cluster podría aislar con mayor fiabilidad el compromiso de funciones ejecutivas como el control inhibitorio y la flexibilidad cognitiva. Esto se determinó empleando medidas de regresión, ingresando como variables independientes funciones ejecutivas y como variables dependientes cada una de las medidas de Fluidez Verbal. Para la mencionada combinación de palabras conjuntas - palabras en relación cluster (PFV fonológica letra P) se halló un R² de .41 (p = .000) ingresando como variables predictoras el Trail Making B y la parte Color - Palabra de la versión Trenerry del paradigma Stroop (Lezak, 1995). Se describen también otras posibilidades de medición temporales - cualitativas y su posible utilidad clínica y de investigación.

Verbal fluency tests (VFTs) are considered semantic cognitive tasks. They demand the retrieval of words under different semantic, phonologic, and grammatical conditions. The measures most commonly used to assess word recall in VFTs are: (1) the number of words produced, (2) categorical and phonological association between words, (3) switching between clusters, and (4) the time at which the words are evoked. These measures involve quantitative (1), qualitative (2 and 3), and temporal (4) analyses. In this study, semantic and phonological VFTs were administered to a child population (8-12 years) in Granada (Spain), in order to: (1) review traditional VFT measures, (2) update temporal indices, and (3) introduce combinations, in an effort to more precisely establish the role of executive control. Topics widely-discussed in the literature include two crucial cognitive processes that underlie VFT performance: semantic processing and executive control, which have been associated with activity in temporal and frontal brain regions, respectively. One of the major challenges in the study of these processes is to distinguish between their separate contributions to VFT execution using obtained data. Measures of switching and clustering have traditionally been used to this end, however they do not take into account the time at which the words are evoked. These measures have also been criticized because their final scores are interrelated and exposed to biases difficult to control. Considering temporal measures important, we evaluated the role of five executive control variables (attentional control, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, switching, and sustained control) and their relationship with combined quantitative, qualitative and temporal measures. Time variables were included by placing each word evoked on a sixtysecond timeline of verbal production. This way we were able to simultaneously calculate the clustering and switching of words, and their temporal positions. All of these results were associated with executive measures using predictive association statistical techniques. Significant results were found among those measures that emphasized the combination of temporary and qualitative cluster measures. We were also able to reliably isolate the participation of executive functions such as inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in the combination of spurts and clusters words. This was determined with Multiple Regression Analysis scores, entering the executive functions as independent variables and each of the verbal fluency measures as dependent variables. For example, an R² of .41 (.000) was obtained for the abovementioned combination of spurted -clustered words in the phonological VFT letter P, entering Trail Making B and Trenerry's Color-Word version of the Stroop task (Lezak, 1995) as predictor variables. When compared, these values clearly exceed those obtained with traditional quantitative and qualitative measures. We discussed these results in relation to the possibility of developing a more precise executive control index for VFTs, specifically for the rapid transition from one word to another related word. As far as we know, only switching (shifting between clusters of words) has been considered an executive control index in VFTs. Here we propose the combination measures described. Possible cognitive mechanisms related to these findings are discussed. Future research must contemplate: (1) a greater sample size, because only 61 participants were studied here, (2) using other technical measures to determine clustering and switching, (3) improving the executive function measures, (4) including other VFTs, such as letter exclusion or action fluency, and (5) extending the procedure to an adult population.