Investigation of the evolution of attention-related abilities in preschool and primary school children with normal development

The foundations of knowledge, skills, and attitudes are formed from the preschool age. Hence, it is necessary to pay attention to any educational development and innovation from the early years of childhood. One of the main factors of teaching and learning is the level of attention of learners to the subject of the lesson. Indeed, attention includes information selection, integration of selected information, memory processes, and scheduling of responses. Deficiency in attention function will lead to deficiency in all purposeful activities from the simplest to the most complex. As psychologists emphasize that the initial stage of any learning begins with attention and insufficient attention to the learning impairs individual learning. Numerous studied have been done on the attention abilities in preschool and elementary school children. However, so far, a comprehensive study has not examined the evolution of the mentioned abilities in preschool and elementary school children with natural development, and in this regard, a gap in research is felt. Thus, such research helps examine the evolution of children's attention, executive function, and emotional recognition. The current study aimed to investigate the evolution of attention-related abilities in preschool and elementary school children with normal development.

The present study was descriptive and comparative. The study population included all preschool and elementary school students in schools in districts 1, 2, and 3 of Tehran and the 2018-2019 academic year. Four hundred children were selected from these children using the cluster multi-stage random sampling method. In order to select the sample, first from preschool and elementary school centers in Tehran, three districts were randomly selected, and then from among these three districts, three schools were randomly selected. Then, two classes were randomly selected from each school in each grade. After that, according to the inclusion and exit criteria of the research, 410 students from these classes were selected as a sample group with natural evolution. Inclusion criteria in this group were: being a pre-school and elementary school student in the selected area, conscious satisfaction, and desire to participate in research. The N-Back test, which is a task of measuring cognitive performance related to executive actions and was first introduced in 1985 by Kirchner, was administrated. Since this task involves storing and manipulating cognitive information, it is well-known for measuring working memory performance. It is done using simple visual stimuli such as letters of the alphabet or shapes. Reliability coefficients in the range of 0.54 to 0.84 showed the high validity of this test. The validity of this test is also very acceptable as an indicator of working memory performance were used to collect data. One-way analysis of variance and Tukey post hoc test by SPSS-22 was used to analyze the data.

Findings from demographic data showed that among 410 subjects, 199 (48.5%) were girls, and 211 (51.5%) were boys. The study subjects had an age range of 5 to 11 years, among which eight years had the highest frequency (15.6%). In order to determine evolution attention abilities in preschool and elementary school children with normal and abnormal development, an analysis of variance test was used. Before presenting the results of the analysis of variance, the assumptions of parametric tests (normality of data distribution, homogeneity of variance, and equality of variances assumption) were evaluated. First, the normality of data distribution was checked and confirmed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (P>0.05). The Levene’s test also tested the assumption of homogeneity of variance, which showed the results for the variables of ability to attention (F=2.56, P=0.194) were not significant. Thus, the assumption of homogeneity of variance was observed. Besides, the results of the Mauchly's sphericity test showed that the equality of variances assumption was observed in the variables of ability to attention (P<0.05). The results showed attention abilities in children with normal development as they age. The results of the analysis of variance showed that participants with different ages have different attention abilities and differences between different ages in all components of attention abilities, including first-stage reaction time, second-stage reaction time, third-stage reaction time, first-stage error, second-stage error, the third-stage error is significant at the level of 0.001. Tukey post hoc test was used to compare ages in each component (first-stage reaction time, second -stage reaction time, third-stage reaction time, first-stage error, second-stage error, and third-stage error). The post hoc test results showed that older age groups show significantly higher accuracy and less reaction time than lower age groups.

The results of this study indicated that attentional abilities in students are age-dependent and, with age increase, attentional abilities grow and develop. According to the present study’s results, students' attention ability has an essential role in improving their social relationships and academic performance. Therefore, examining and strengthening it in elementary school ages, around four to eight years old and even up to 12 years old when the development of forehead parts is complete, has a vital role in academic success. On the other hand, it is suggested that attention abilities be examined through standardized tests and the results be recorded in the students' files. Like other studies, the present study has some limitations. Among the limitations of the present study, we can mention the present study’s design and the use of cross-sectional methods, which will not lead to the stability of results. Besides, among the other limitations of the present study, we can mention the limited research on preschool and elementary school students in Tehran, Iran, so it is suggested that other similar research be done with different occupational groups in other cities and with different cultures to remove the limit of generalizability of the results.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This research meets guidelines for ethical conduct and report of research. The participants signed the informed consent form and had the right to leave the study at any time. They were assured that all information would remain confidential and would only be used for research purposes. All subjects received information about the study at any time could leave the study. For privacy reasons, the subjects' details were not recorded.

Authors’ contributions
Mahtab Norouzian and Vahid Nejati: Defined the concepts in choosing the subject and designing the study. Mahtab Norouzian: Collected and analyzed data. Fariborz Bagheri: Writing and drafting. All authors performed a search of the research literature and background and discussed the results and participated in preparing and editing the article’s final version.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from the public, commercial, or non-profit funding agencies. This research was extracted from the PhD Dissertation of the first author, in the Department of Psychology, faculty of psychology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Acknowledgments  
The authors are grateful to all participants in the research and those who have facilitated the implementation of the present research.
Conflict of Interest
The author declared no conflict of interest