The effect of cognitive training on working memory and focused attention of anxious children

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of cognitive training on working memory and sustain attention of children with anxiety. A pseudo-experimental study was performed among students aged 8 to 9 years old and selection was based on research criteria by two-stage sampling. In the first step, using cluster sampling, 358 students were selected and anxiety test was performed on them, which 137 students with high anxiety were selected. In the second stage, 76 students were selected according to the entry criteria, and Raven''s intelligence test was used to match the intelligence of subjects; finally, 44 students were selected as a sample of study and were randomly placed in two experimental and control groups and at the end, the data of 36 subjects were analyzed. In order to match the participants, Raven''s intelligence test (Rayon et al., 1993) and Reynolds and Richmond''s (1987) Manifest Anxiety were used and the research tools were, Kirchner''s N-back Memory Test (1985), concentration & diffuse attention test of (Khodadadi, Yazdi and Amani, 1393). At the beginning, a pre-test of working memory and precise, focused and scattered execution was performed for all participants. Then, the test group received 10 sessions of 45-minutes training in 5 weeks and at the end, both groups completed the post-test.The multivariate covariance analysis was used to test the hypotheses in the study and the analysis of the result indicates the effect of cognitive training on the improvement of accuracy and concentration of working memory.