Experiences with tasks supported by a cognitive e-learning system in preschool: Modelling and training on working memory and attentional control

• Differences between the two APRENDO tasks in answer accuracy and answering time.
• Internal consistency of APRENDO exercises, demonstrating suitability.
• Significant differences between some of variables analyzed in experimental group.
• Children with lower scores in pretest were those who benefited during training.

Improvements in executive functions appear to have a strong impact on preschool learning activities and academic performance. This paper presents some experiences in training working memory and attentional control supported by an educational software system called APRENDO. The aims were to assess the suitability of the APRENDO system as a computer-based learning system in terms of improvements in these two executive functions, and to establish whether the tasks help children – especially children with the poorest performance – in a school task requiring the use of both processes. The participants were 52 four-year-old children, divided into a control group and an experimental group. The experimental group trained with two types of APRENDO visuospatial exercises: “Find the different objects” and “Find the intruder”. Before and after the training phase, all the children performed a school task with similar psychological demands selected from their ordinary school materials. The results of both APRENDO exercises showed positive correlations between the same variables over the training sessions, demonstrating the suitability of the exercises. On the other hand, in the experimental group, there were significant differences between some of the variables analyzed, e.g., the time needed to complete the exercises (“Answering time”) or the number of clicks on the correct images (“Answer accuracy”) in both exercises during the sessions. The results indicate that the children who obtained lower scores in the pre-test phase were those who benefitted the most from training. The analysis of the errors made by the children in both tasks suggests that these errors are due to the incorrect application of the same cognitive abilities. The implications for educational practice are discussed.

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