Article
Attention of Three-, Four-, and Five-year Old Children and Their Performance of Cognitive Tasks: An EEG Analysis Study
| e-ISSN | 2982-6845 |
| p-ISSN | 1226-4474 |
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to confirm if children’s attention is dependent on their age and sex, andalso the kind of a task when they are carrying out cognitive tasks. Furthermore, the relationship betweenthe attention and performance of children was investigated. Sixty children (20 each three-, four-, andfive-year olds, 10 boys and 10 girls) of a kindergarten in Gyeonggi were recruited as participants. Thelogico-mathematical task set was presented to the children and the electroencephalogram (EEG) of childrenwas measured while they were performing the tasks. The response and the response time of the childrenwere recorded. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS program. The results show that children’sattention during cognitive activities does not depend on their age and sex. However, they are dependenton the kind of the task. The level of attention was highest when children were performing thecategorization task, followed by the pattern task, and finally the discrimination and seriation tasks. Therewas no correlation between the children’s attention and their performance. These results suggest thatattentional resource acts as a basic element for cognitive activities and it can be differently utilized basedon the level of cognitive processing required to perform each task. In addition, this empirical data canprovide implications to compositions of cognitive tasks or programs that strengthen children’s attentionalcompetency in early childhood education.