The Effect of Learning and Cognition Program of University of Utah on Sustained, Selective and Shifting Attention of Children

Background and Purpose: Attention is one of the essentials conditions of learning, and before starting the process of learning, the child must pay attention to the task. Therefore, present study was conducted to examine the effect of learning and cognition program of University of Utah on the (sustained, selective and shifting) dimensions of attention in young children. It was a semi-experimental study of control group design. The study sample consisted of 24 children in the 4-5 age range presenting the kindergartens of Babolsar in 2016, selected through convenience sampling based on entrance conditions of the research and randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control group. Wisconsin card sorting test (Grant and Berg, 1948), Stroop (Ridley Stroop, 1935), and continuous performance test (Rozvold, 1956) were performed on both groups simultaneously. Then, the experimental group underwent twenty 45-minute sessions of learning and cognition program of University of Utah, while the control group received no training. Finally, the posttest was performed for both groups. Results of the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that there was a significant difference in the mean score of experimental and control group in selective and shifting attentions (p <0.05). Whereas attention and its dimensions are considered as one of the essential cognitive skills; therefore, based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that learning and cognition program of University of Utah, considering the training of cognitive skills, can increase the ability of attention in young children.