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Social functioning profiles, attention skills and learning: what relationships in early childhood?
Elena Commodari1, Francesca Foti1, Valentina Lucia La Rosa1
1Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
Insights
Early learning depends on attention, but the impact of divided attention on learning outcomes varies with a child's social functioning. Focused attention and short-term span consistently support learning.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Cognitive Psychology
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Early learning is shaped by cognitive processes and social experiences.
- Attention is crucial for preschool learning, but its specific components' impact on learning outcomes and social functioning is unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how different aspects of attention relate to learning outcomes in preschoolers.
- To examine whether children's social functioning profiles moderate the association between attention and learning.
Main Methods:
- Assessed multiple attention aspects (reaction time, focused, short-term span, divided, alternating) in 139 preschoolers (4-5 years) using computerized tasks.
- Evaluated learning abilities (general, literacy/math prerequisites, specific domains) via observational questionnaires.
- Assessed social functioning using an observational Q-sort procedure and analyzed associations using hierarchical regression and moderation analyses.
Main Results:
- Visual focused attention, visual-spatial focused attention, and short-term span consistently positively associated with global and domain-specific learning outcomes.
- Divided attention positively associated with learning, but this effect was significant only at mean and high levels of social functioning, not low levels.
Conclusions:
- Early learning competence is influenced by attention's internal structure and the social contexts where attention is expressed.
- While some attention aspects consistently predict learning, divided attention's contribution to learning is contingent on children's social functioning within interactions.
Background:
Early learning emerges from the interplay between cognitive processes and social experiences. While attention is widely recognized as a core foundation of preschool learning, less is known about whether distinct aspects of attention contribute uniformly to learning outcomes or whether their functional relevance varies across children's social functioning profiles.
Methods:
The study involved 139 preschool children (4-5 years). Multiple aspects of attention (reaction times, simple and related to a choice; focused attention; short-term span of attention; divided and alternating attention) were assessed using a computerized battery. Learning abilities were evaluated through an observational questionnaire measuring general learning abilities, prerequisites for literacy and mathematics, and specific domains of learning performance. Social functioning profiles were assessed using an observational Q-sort procedure. Hierarchical regression models were estimated to examine independent associations between attentional aspects and learning outcomes, and moderation analyses tested whether social functioning conditioned these associations.
Results:
Visual focused attention, visual-spatial focused attention, and short-term span showed consistent positive associations with global and domain-specific learning outcomes. Divided attention also contributed to learning performance, but its association varied systematically as a function of social functioning profiles, being significant at mean and high levels but not at low levels, consistently across general learning abilities and domain-specific prerequisites.
Conclusion:
Findings suggest that early learning competence reflects not only the internal architecture of attention, but also the social contexts in which specific aspects of attention are concurrently expressed. While several components of attention show stable associations with learning outcomes regardless of relational context, the contribution of divided attention is contingent on children's social functioning profiles within adult-child interactions.
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