The Effectiveness of Critical Thinking Training on Working Memory, Cognitive Flexibility and Cognitive Emotion Regulation in Students

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

10.48308/apsy.2024.233406.1599

Abstract

Aim: This research was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of critical thinking training on working memory, cognitive flexibility and cognitive emotion regulation in students.
 
 Method: In this research, a pre-test-post-test true-experimental design with a control group and follow-up was used. The statistical population of the present study included all the 12th grade male students of Nikan School in one education district of Tehran in the academic year 1400-1401 and 30 of them were selected completely randomly using the available sampling method and placed in experimental and control groups (each containing 15 people). After designing, the critical thinking training package was implemented for 10 sessions and each session lasted 30 minutes for the experimental group. The participants responded to the working memory questionnaire (Danimin et al. 1980), cognitive flexibility Inventory (Dennis et al. 2010) and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (Garnefsky et al. 2006) in three phases: pre-test, post-test and one-month follow-up.
 
Results: The results of simple mixed factorial ANOVA showed that critical thinking training was effective in increasing working memory, cognitive flexibility and adaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation and reducing maladaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation (p≥0.05).
 
Conclusion: The results showed that teaching critical thinking skills by strengthening the participants' mental capital and coping resources improves their actions in both cognitive and emotional realms.

Keywords

Main Subjects


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