Relationship between cognitive processes and academic performance in high school students
| Autor | Laura Puerta Morales |
| Cargo | Universidad de la Costa, Barranquilla, Colombia |
| Páginas | 85-100 |
85
| Psychol. av. disciP. | bogotá, colombia | vol. 9 | N.° 2 | P. 85-100 | Julio - diciembre | 2015 | issN 1900-2386 |
relatioNshiP BetweeN cogNitive Processes aNd
academic PerFormaNce iN high school studeNts
relaciÓN eNtre los Procesos cogNitivos y el reNdimieNto académico
eN estudiaNtes de educaciÓN Básica secuNdaria
laURa pUeRta moRales*
UNiveRsidad de la costa, BaRRaNqUilla - colomBia
Fecha recePciÓN: 22/1/2015 • Fecha acePtaciÓN: 17/5/2015
Para citar este artículo: Puerta, L. (2015). Relationship between cognitive processes and academic performance in high school
students. Psychologia: Avances de la Disciplina, 9(2), 85-100.
Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relationship between the cognitive processes and the academic performance by a
non-experimental correlational study with a cross-sectional design. Participants were 60 students between 14 and 17 years old, who were
randomly selected from high school tenth grade without a history of personality disorder or intellectual disability. Academic performance was
evaluated from the school average reported by educational documents. Cognitive processes measured were: focused and sustained attention,
cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control, delayed visual memor y, auditory verbal learning and delayed auditory verbal memor y, visual-
constructive praxis, naming function of language and verbal fluency. A neuropsychological battery was used for that purpose. According to
the Rho Spearman, the results indicated that there is a statistically significant relationship between the two following cognitive processes and
academic performance: sustained attention (p=0.01) and the naming function of language (p=0.05).
Keywords: attention, executive functions, visual-constructive praxis, memor y, language, academic performance, high school.
Resumen
El propósito de la presente investigación fue determinar la relación entre los procesos cognitivos y el rendimiento académico mediante
un estudio no experimental correlacional con diseño transeccional. Participaron 60 estudiantes entre 14 y 17 años de edad, los cuales
fueron seleccionados al azar de grado décimo de básica secundaria sin antecedentes personales de trastorno de personalidad o discapacidad
intelectual. El rendimiento académico se evaluó a partir del promedio escolar reportado por informes educativos. Los procesos cognitivos
medidos fueron: atención focalizada y sostenida, flexibilidad cognitiva y control inhibitorio, memoria visual inmediata, aprendizaje auditivo
verbal y memoria auditiva verbal inmediata, praxis visuoconstructiva, función nominativa del lenguaje y fluidez verbal; para lo cual, se empleó
una batería de instrumentos neuropsicológicos. De acuerdo con R de Spearman, los resultados arrojados señalan que existe una relación
estadísticamente significativa entre los dos siguientes procesos cognitivos y el rendimiento académico: la atención sostenida (p=0.01) y la
función nominativa del lenguaje (p=0.05).
Palabras clave: atención, funciones ejecutivas, praxis visuoconstructiva, memoria, lenguaje, rendimiento académico, básica secundaria.
* Doctor in Psychology with specialization in Applied Cognitive Neuroscience – Maimónides University, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Teacher Researcher,
Culture, Education and Society Research Group (CES) – Psychology Program, Coast University, CUC. Correspondence: Calle 58 # 55 – 66 (Department
of Psychology, Universidad de la Costa) Barranquilla-Colombia; e-mail: lpuerta1@cuc.edu.co
artículo de iNvestigaciÓN
86
| Universidad de san BUenaventUra, Bogotá | Psychologia: avances de la disciPlina | FacUltad de Psicología |
PUerta Morales l.
Introduction
Cognition is generally understood as the set of
mental processes that occur between the reception of
stimuli and the response thereto (Ortiz, 2009). Vygotsky
(1978; 2009) stated that cognitive processes arise and
undergo changes during the course of human development
and its learning process, and that, Psychology intended to
address them and understand them: origin, development
and functionality. In order to define its functionality, the
field of neuropsychology has focused on the study of
cognitive processes, emphasizing the importance of the
brain in human behavior, and the relevance of certain
cognitive processes and the functions derived from them
in learning (Portellano, 2005). First of all, the study of the
attention process started with some works that focused
on the execution or performance of subjects (Keele,
1973; Kinsbourne & Hicks, 1978 cited in León-Carrión,
1995), others on the attentional mechanisms addressing
the subjective experience (Higging & King, 1981 cited
in León-Carrión, 1995; McLeod, 1978; Neely, 1977;
Posner, 1978), others on the filtering and selection
processes (Mirsky et al., 1991) and others on finding
the neural substrates (Petersen, Fox, Snyder & Raichle,
1990 cited in León-Carrión, 1995; Posner, 1991).
Several types of attention are implicitly acknowledged,
such as arousal, focused attention, sustained attention,
alternating attention, divided attention, exclusionary
attention and selective attention (Portellano, 2005). The
anatomic structures related to attention are the brainstem
and thalamic reticular formation, the basal ganglia, the
cingulate gyrus, the primary cortices and the prefrontal
cortex (Estévez-González, García-Sánchez & Junqué,
1997). The complexity of attentional processes has led
to the development of several formulations of attention
from different conceptual spheres of neuroscience and
cognitive psychology, such as the Pribram and McGuiness
model (1975), the Norman and Shallice model (1980),
the Broadbent model (1982), the Mesulam model
(1985), the Posner and Peterson model (1990), the
Stuss and Benson model (1995) and the Mirsky model
(1996), among others. For purposes of this research,
the A.F. Mirsky’s model has been revised. Mirsky et al.
(1991) explained that the components of attention of
their model might be located in different brain regions
and work together as a big machine. The elements are:
focus/execution or focusing attention and efficient execution,
sustain or sustaining attention, encoding and alternating o
shift. Castillo, Gómez and Ostrosky (2009) evaluated the
effects of attention in academic performance in a group
of 156 students between 7 and 12 years old applying the
Neuropsi Attention and Memory Neuropsychological
Test Battery (Ostrosky-Solís et al., 2007). The results
suggested that selective and sustained attention improve
a point every six years. Likewise did Leon (2008) and
Boujon and Quaireau (2004) with the concepts of
mindfulness, ability to concentrate and sustaining tasks,
respectively. Lan, Legare, Cameron, Su Li and Morrison
(2011) investigated the association between executive
function and inhibition, working memory and attentional
control, and academic achievement in reading and
math in 119 Chinese and 139 American preschoolers
making an intercultural analysis. It was found as results
that the Chinese do better in inhibition and attentional
control tasks. In both countries the relationship between
the components of executive function and academic
achievement were similar. Attentional control was
important for all aspects of academic performance in
reading and math skills.
Second, it is stated that the study of executive
functions has enriched the scientific background,
since they allow for and facilitate the transformation
of thought into decisions, plans and actions. Stuss and
Benson (1986), as well as García and Muñoz (2000)
and Burgess (1997), defined executive functions (EF)
as a supramodal function that organizes human conduct,
which allows solving complex problems. Furthermore,
the explanatory models of executive functions are the
Virginia Douglas model (1983), the Schachar, Tannock
and Logan model (1993), the Gray model (1994), the
Barkley model (1997) and the Sergeant model (2000),
among others. For purposes of this research, the self-
regulation model proposed by Russell A. Barkley (1997)
has been revised. He asserts that the self-regulation model
is a “theory of the functions of the prefrontal lobe or, in
this case, the EF system” (p.230). The model is based
on the analysis of the interrelations between behavioral
inhibition, EF and self-regulation. Actually, Castillo-
Parra, Gómez and Ostrosky-Solís (2009), Latzman,
Elkovitch, Young and Clark (2011) and Sánchez et al.
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