Cognitive Functions in Young Adolescence: Features, Interconnections, and Gender Differences

Abstract

The research featured the development of cognitive gender-related functions in teenagers. It covered statistically significant differences in such indicators as establishing analogies, visual memory volume, and attention span. The indicators of mental operations and memory volume proved to be interconnected, as well as the indicators of mental operations and attention properties. The male group demonstrated direct connections between visual memory volume and the abilities to compare and contrast abstract notions and continue numerical series. Auditory short-term memory volume depended on the ability to perform arithmetic tasks and numerical series. Auditory long-term memory volume also depended on the numerical series performance. Another interconnection was registered between the indicators of auditory memory volume, arithmetic tasks, comparing and contrasting abstract ideas, and numerical series. The test also revealed correlations between the indicators of selective attention and the ability to follow instructions, as well as to compare and contrast abstract notions. In the female group, visual memory volume, auditory long-term memory volume, and auditory-mediated memory volume were connected with the abilities to complete sentences, determine abstract similarities and differences, establish analogies, identify symbols, and follow instructions. Obviously, when working with young teenagers, changes in intellectual development should be forecasted based on memory volume indicators. The study revealed direct connections between indicators of attention properties, i.e., span, distribution, and selectivity, and all indicators of mental development, excluding the ability to interpret symbols. The end-to-end cognitive processes made it possible to predict the cognitive development in young adolescents, based on their individual cognitive profiles.