Features of the Development of the Cognitive Sphere in Children with Different Online Activities: Is There a Golden Mean?

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Abstract

The paper presents the results of a comparative study of cognitive functions in preschoolers (5—7 years old, n=50), elementary school students (7—11 years old, n=50), younger adolescents (12—13 years old, n=53), and older adolescents (14—16 years old, n=47) with different intensity of daily use of digital devices: low, medium, controlled high, and uncontrollably high. A battery of neuropsychological methods was used to study the state of cognitive functions. The main differences in accordance with online activity were found in groups of elementary school students and younger adolescents: results were obtained confirming that children using the Internet at medium frequency (1—3 hours per day) are effective in performing a number of cognitive tasks (regulation, control, dynamical praxis, verbal and visual-spatial functions, and neurodynamics). In this study, a certain optimum of online activity time was outlined for different age groups, in the presence of which higher levels of development of certain cognitive functions are recorded.

General Information

Keywords: digital technologies, neuropsychological diagnostics, cognitive functions, online activity, optimal time for using the Internet

Journal rubric: Empirical Researches

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2019270307

Acknowledgements. The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 17-06-00762.

For citation: Soldatova G.U., Vishneva A.E. Features of the Development of the Cognitive Sphere in Children with Different Online Activities: Is There a Golden Mean?. Konsul'tativnaya psikhologiya i psikhoterapiya = Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy, 2019. Vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 97–118. DOI: 10.17759/cpp.2019270307. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Galina U. Soldatova, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Professor, Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Head of the Department of Social Psychology, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6690-7882, e-mail: soldatova.galina@gmail.com

Anastasiya E. Vishneva, Clinical Psychologist, Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation Сenter, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: nvishneva@mail.ru

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