The effect of metacognitive executive function training on children's executive function, proactive control, and academic skills

Kubota, Maki, Hadley, Lauren, Schaffner, Simone, Konen, Tanja, Meaney, Julie-Anne, Morey, Candice ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7644-5239, Auyeung, Bonnie, Moriguchi, Yusuke, Karbachi, Julia and Chevalier, Nicolas 2023. The effect of metacognitive executive function training on children's executive function, proactive control, and academic skills. Developmental Psychology 59 (11) , pp. 2002-2020. 10.1037/dev0001626

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Abstract

The current study investigated the effects of metacognitive and executive function (EF) training on childhood EF (inhibition, working memory [WM], cognitive flexibility, and proactive/reactive control) and academic skills (reading, reasoning, and math) among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Children (N = 134, Mage = 8.70 years) were assigned randomly to the three training groups: (a) metacognitive training of basic EF processes (meta-EF), (b) training of basic EF processes (basic-EF), and (c) active controls (active control). They underwent 16 training sessions over the course of 2 months. No effects of EF and/or metacognitive training were found for academic outcomes. However, both meta-EF and basic-EF groups demonstrated greater gains than the active control group on proactive control engagement and WM, suggesting that EF training promotes a shift to more mature ways of engaging EF. Our findings suggest minimal near- and far-transfer effects of metacognitive training but highlight that proactive engagement of EF can be promoted through EF training in children.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
ISSN:	0012-1649
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	31 July 2023
Date of Acceptance:	28 July 2023
Last Modified:	28 Nov 2023 18:44
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/161361

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