Impact of an individualized and adaptive cognitive intervention on working memory, planning and fluid reasoning processing in preschoolers from poor homes

ABSTRACT

Contemporary evidence shows that different intervention approaches can be effective in improving executive cognitive performance in preschoolers from poor homes. However, several aspects about the role of individual and contextual differences in intervention effects remain to be elucidated. The present study aimed to explore the impact of a computerized executive cognitive intervention with lab-based tasks in preschoolers from Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) homes. In the context of a randomized controlled design, different activities were administered to children according to their baseline performance in a variety of cognitive tasks tapping inhibitory control, working memory, and planning demands (i.e., high- and low-performance intervention and control groups). Results suggested that the impact of the intervention was shown preferentially by high-performers in Tower of London and K-Bit tasks, who increased their performances in the posttest assessment. This finding supports the importance of considering individual and contextual differences in the design of interventions aimed at changing the cognitive performance of children from poor homes.

KEYWORDS:

• Poverty
• intervention
• executive function
• development
• individual differences

Acknowledgments

Author’s institutions. The authors thank Máximo Atunga, Juan Facundo Corti, Paula Daris, Guido Deleersnyder, Paula Faimann, Silvina Papantonio, Juan Ignacio Nachón, Verónica Ramírez, Monserrat Rodriguez, Sofía Ronchino, Camila Sánchez Salinas, Fernando Stella, Samanta Vacca, Magdalena Wagner, Aldana Agustina Casal, Manuel Bruzzone, Magalí Angela Fedele, Shadia Cure, Denise Ariana Zucchi, Sophie Mizrahi, and Micaela Massobrio for their help in collecting the data and the authorities, teachers, families, and children from the school community of the study. Finally, the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper. The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [initials]. The data are not publicly available due to [restrictions e.g., their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2021.1998406.

Notes

¹ Given the large number of definitions and measures available in the literature, by poverty, we mean both income, socioeconomic status (SES) and Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) measures.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CONICET [PIP 2015 #0794]; Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica [PICT 2014 #0500].