Kira L Argenio, Sophia E Day, Emily M D'Agostino, Cody Neshteruk, Brooke E Wagner, Kevin J Konty
Increasing disparities in obesity and severe obesity prevalence among public elementary and middle school students in New York City, school years 2011-12 through 2019-20
PloS one
relational thinking ability represent abstract generalizable relations core component reasoning human cognition relational thinking contributes fluid reasoning academic achievement particularly domain math however due complex nature many fluid reasoning tasks difficult determine degree relational thinking separable role cognitive processes collectively known executive functions efs used simplified reasoning task better understand relational thinking contributes math achievement large diverse sample elementary middle school students n 942 students also performed set ten adaptive ef assessments well tests math fluency fraction magnitude comparison found relational thinking significantly correlated three ef composite scores previously derived dataset albeit strongly relational thinking predicted unique variance students math fluency fraction magnitude comparison scores three ef composites thus propose relational thinking considered ef right one core midlevel cognitive abilities supports cognition goaldirected behavior research highlights relational thinking process identifying integrating relations develops childhood central reasoning collected data nearly 1000 elementary middle schoolers test relational thinking ten standard executive function tasks two math tests relational thinking predicts unique variance math achievement accounted canonical efs throughout middle childhood propose relational thinking conceptualized core executive function supports cognitive development learning