Abstract
Background: When students proceed to junior high school from elementary school, rapid changes
in the environment occur, which may cause various behavioral and emotional problems.
However, the changes in cognitive functions during this transitional period have rarely
been studied. Methods: In 158 elementary school students from 4th- to 6th-grades and 159 junior high school
students from 7th- to 9th-grades, we assessed various cognitive functions, including
motor processing, spatial construction ability, semantic fluency, immediate memory,
delayed memory, spatial and non-spatial working memory, and selective, alternative,
and divided attention. Results: Our findings showed that performance on spatial and non-spatial working memory, alternative
attention, divided attention, and semantic fluency tasks improved from elementary
to junior high school. In particular, performance on alternative and divided attention
tasks improved during the transitional period from elementary to junior high school.
Conclusion: Our finding suggests that development of alternative and divided attention is of
crucial importance in the transitional period from elementary to junior high school.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 16, 2010
Accepted:
July 21,
2010
Received in revised form:
June 29,
2010
Received:
March 29,
2010
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
