Effects of preschool tuition on the development of executive function of 5- and 6-year-olds.

• Main Authors: Soon, Jiaying., Chan, Yi Fen., Yap, Suhui.
• Other Authors: Qu Li
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology::Applied psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/15615
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Executive function (EF) directs the conscious control of thought and action. It encompasses three components: working memory (WM), response inhibition (RI) and cognitive flexibility (CF). With evidence that EF can be trained, this study aims to investigate if preschool academic tuition can enhance EF development in preschoolers age 5 and 6, and if this enhancement differed between the age groups. Seven tasks were administered on 49 Singaporean preschoolers: two for each of the components and a receptive vocabulary task. Exposure to tuition indeed interacted with age for the Backward Digit Span (WM) task, Day/Night Stroop (RI) task and the Flexible Item Selection (CF) task. Implications of the findings are great as it appears that tuition only enhances performance at age 6. Tuition at age 5 does not enhance performance, and might even have unfavorable influences.