Comparing the effectiveness of strengthening working memory and critical thinking training on cognitive processing of children with special learning disorder

The present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of strengthening working memory and critical thinking training on the cognitive processing of children with special learning disabilities.

The current research was a semi-experimental research with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population included all students aged 9 to 12 who referred to the Center for Special Learning Problems in the third district of Tabriz in the second half of 1400. Among them, 60 people were selected by purposeful sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. The tools used in the research were the Cognitive Processing Inventory. Hypothes were analyzed using multivariate covariance.

Resultes: 

The results of the analysis of covariance showed that the significance level in all comparisons was less than 0.05, which showed that there was a significant difference in the effectiveness of the two intervention methods of working memory strengthening and critical thinking training on cognitive processing (p <0.05). Examining the effect size showed that the biggest difference was observed in the total cognitive processing score with a coefficient of 0.758 and the processing speed component with a coefficient of 0.636.

According to the results of the present study, the effect of critical thinking training on cognitive processing is more than working memory. It is suggested that critical thinking skills should be taught with the trainers of medical centers so that these trainers can use these strategies in their interventions.