Browsing by Author "Pizarro, Marcelo"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item The role of executive functions in the relation between socioeconomic level and the development of reading and maths skills(2018) Escobar, José-Pablo; Rosas-Díaz, Ricardo; Ceric, Francisco; Aparicio, Andrés; Arango, Paulina; Arroyo, Rodrigo; Espinoza, Victoria; Garolera, Marion; Pizarro, Marcelo; Porflitt, Felipe; Ramírez, María-Paz; Urzúa, DiegoExecutive functions (EF) are a set of processes that allow individuals to plan, monitor and organize tasks and thus play a key role in the development of reading and maths skills. Environmental factors such as socioeconomic level (SEL) influence reading and maths skills as well as EFs. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which executive functions play a mediating role between SEL and reading and maths performance. To this end, we assessed 286 Chilean primary education students: 86 with a high SEL and 200 with a low level. The results show that the high-SEL group obtained consistently higher scores than their peers with low SEL levels in both reading and maths tasks as well as in EF measurements. This suggests that SEL could influence the development of these variables. The results also showed that EFs partially mediate the relation between SEL and reading and maths skills in primary school students through the specific function of inhibition. The results are discussed in light of the effect of SEL on the development of EFs and school learning.Item Traditional Assessment or Invisible Assessment Using Games? New Frontiers in Cognitive Assessment.(2015) Rosas, Ricardo; Ceric, Francisco; Aparicio, Andrés; Arango, Paulina; Arroyo, Rodrigo; Benavente, Catalina; Escobar, Pablo; Olguín, Polín; Pizarro, Marcelo; Ramírez, María Paz; Tenorio, MarcelaThis paper addresses the problem of anxiety related to traditional assessment, which can affect assessment outcomes and underestimate the performance of subjects. Invisible assessment makes it possible to evaluate subjects without making them feel like they are being evaluated. Invisible evaluation tests were developed for touch screen tablets for 3 cognitive domains: intelligence, calculation, and reading. These tests were applied to 337 children from kindergarten through third grade, who attended 3 mixed-funding schools in Santiago, Chile. The schools were convenience sampled and all the children whose parents signed the informed consent form were included. The final sample was randomly distributed among the domains. Correlations between traditional assessment tests and invisible assessment tests were observed. Children reported a preference for invisible assessment over traditional assessment. Subjects with low academic performance obtained better scores on invisible assessment tests than on traditional tests, according to a mixed factors analysis of variance. These findings suggest that it is possible to assess cognitive domains with nontraditional instruments and that they can reveal the real academic performance of subjects.