Everybody knows that study is a challenging adventure. Therefore, students require different activities and tools that can help them to stimulate their brain so as to improve their cognitive skills. Students usually spend most of their time learning and exploring new things. As such, their cognitive process must always active because it is needed to be used as many times as possible. However, there are times when the students start feeling like they are hitting the wall and that their brains are tired. However, some ways and tools can be utilized to improve their cognitive skills through continuous and straightforward practice (Karyotaki & Drigas, 2015). Teachers and parents who surround these students should be aware that memory is vital to their vibrant teenagers and it plays a significant role in all daily activities hence being one of the essential cognitive functions in a person's life. In relations to memory and cognition, the topics that will be researched in this paper include decision making and problem-solving, attention, and language.
The first topic is decision making and problem-solving which is an important subject when it comes to memory and cognition. Decision making and problem-solving determines how effective a student uses heir brain is in regards to address an issue. The other topic is attention which covers the ability of students to maintain concentration which is essential for overall human behavior. Attention is categorized under a selective complex cognitive function that deals with external processes such as sound, image and smell. The third topic that is important for this research is the language which is described as the archetypal individual characteristic, which is used on daily services. Language is mostly used verbally when reading or writing as well as orally when communicating with other people in order to understand them. However, the main focus will be on cognitive processes that are involved in reading. Training Program
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With the numerous learning activities set out for students in learning institutions, the need for cognitive interventions is nowadays being accepted. The brain stimulation program involves the process of using different tools to train specified cognitive mechanisms in a direct and controlled method. The cognitive mechanisms that will be tested during the training process include decision making and problem-solving skills, attention as well as language. Through well-selected tools, the training program involves performing mental exercises as well as using learning and training strategies which will aid in stimulating and improving cognitive performance. Additionally, these psychological activities will help to keep the brain active and healthy. Researchers have proved that active and stimulated brain gets more oxygen as well as nutritive elements ( Golino, & Flores-Mendoza, 2016 ). The training program will involve tools like smartphone games, watching a short film and answering questions at the end and finally solving a word puzzle. The training program will involve a number of randomly selected students from an institution that will not be disclosed in this paper.
Topic One: Decision Making and Problem-Solving
The first main topic for this course is decision making and problem-solving. This is a unique topic when it comes to cognitive function since the two are known to work together. This means that they belong together since one cannot be able to solve a problem without the process of making a decision first. Decision making is a cognitive process that requires one to reason and ends up selecting an option or an action among many other alternatives that were available before them. It is believed that decision making is mostly influenced by values, preferences as well as beliefs of the one making the decision (Karyotaki & Drigas, 2015). Therefore, it requires critical thinking which in most cases, makes the brain tired and worn out.
This topic is relevant in the sense that the students require critical thinking and well-stimulated brain to be able to make decisions that will solve not only their problems but also aid in their studies. Any problem-solving process requires well-thought decision since the outcomes are always expected to be satisfactory in most cases. This means that the process is always more or less rational and is usually based on any knowledge or beliefs. Psychologically, the cognitive process of decision making is linked to many factors ranging from preferences; set of needs as well as values but it is also highly linked with interaction with the environment (Karyotaki & Drigas, 2015). Additionally, a focus on decision making and problem-solving will help evaluate the circumstances on which students make their decisions, especially when faced with a challenge or a complex problem. During the training program, the selected students will be provided with a complex electronic game that will require them to think before making any step or any decision. This will also aid in problem-solving skills as the game will require one to solve a certain problem through some provided choices. To make sure that all the factors that influence cognitive functions are well represented, the game will also cover some environment-related situations that will also aid in the decision-making process.
Topic Two: Attention
The next topic of focus in this study is attention which also plays a huge role in a student's life. In most cases, students are required to concentrate on the topics to get what they are being taught. Therefore concentration is vital in the learning process for the teacher as well as the students since the process will be effective and beneficial to both sides. There are many different types of attention which heavily depends on the environmental factors or change in the surrounding. For instance, there is the phasic alert which comes as a result of the disruption, for example, a gunshot or thunder which creates attention. The other type is voluntary attention which comes as a result of circumstances around you. Then there is selective or focused attention which comes due to the benefits of what one is paying attention to (Zhang, Chang, Chen, Ma & Zhou, 2018). This means that despite disruptions, one has to decide to pay attention to something that is of more value. Students require attention, and they can be tested through a simple process which will be explained further in the training program section.
Attention is essential in improving study habit since it dictates how much information is going to the brain and what should not go to the brain, especially when the students are studying. Ways of improving student's attention should be considered since it is what they would require to gain knowledge when learning. Attention is an important topic because it acts as a gateway to cognition. This means that it directly impacts on overall school performance across the whole spectrum. Additionally, attention mediates other primary variables that play a vital contribution to the success of the student. Looking at attention in a psychological view, it brings out the ability to study because it can straddle the boundaries between low-level as well as higher-level brain processes. Therefore, attention can be further described as the ability to select and processing information from the surrounding environment (Sanger, & Dorjee, 2015). There are many ways in which the ability to maintain the attention of the students can be improved through simple methods that will also enhance the health of the brain.
Topic Three: Language
Language is the third main topic for this study since it plays a vital role in everyday life of a student. There are numerous activities in schools, and this helps students to communicate more, and therefore the use of language is very high. Language is the key variable for communicating and learning. Proper use of language dictates how much a student will understand which is achievable through reading, speaking, writing as well as listening. However, as much as they may sound common, these language-media have also had some differences arising from different dimensions such as scan-ability, use in practice, permanence, cultural roles as well as cognitive efforts required for processing the information. Language is a compulsory lesson that is required for a better understanding of other subjects being taught. Every other subject requires language for better comprehension. Therefore, language is inevitable and is a topic of major concern ( Weinstein, Madan, & Sumeracki, 2018) . Hence before anything else, students must be taught in a way that is easy for them to read and write.
This topic is of major importance to this study since language is cognitive skills that aid us in the process of translating sounds and written information into words and generate verbal output. According to the cognitive theory of learning, language acquisition is regarded as a conscious and reasoned thinking process that requires well-established learning strategies. These well-established learning strategies consist of unique ways of data processing that will aid in proper comprehension, learning or retention of information that will be utilized later. The provided explanation above shows the connection that language has with the environment and the behaviourist account of the language learning process ( Weinstein, Madan, & Sumeracki, 2018) . This fact makes language to be seen as an unconscious and automatic learning process. There are many different ways on which the language learning process can be enhanced like minimizing the length of speech and ensuring that the font size, as well as type, allows for easy reading and identification.
Training Program
Goals of the Program
The cognitive training program involves the utilization of technological mechanisms such as smartphone games, a short film that will require analyzing and answering questions at the end. These cognitive tasks are aimed at helping the students with the training of decision and problem-solving skills, attention and language. This training program involved 15 randomly selected students from a well-recognized institution. Therefore, the overall goal of this program was to develop and describe the steps involved in the cognitive training of healthy students (Golino, & Flores-Mendoza, 2016). This program aimed at looking into different ways on which the exhausted brain of a student can be stimulated to enhance some cognitive processes.
Interventions
The intervention of this training program is centered on the overall performance of decision making and problem solving, attention and language through multimodal method focusing on the three cognitive abilities. The stimuli process for the program is computerized considering the fact that teens are involved and this is a digital era ( Grunewaldt, Skranes, Brubakk, & Lähaugen, 2016) . This will help them to relate more to the training process since it is what they are used to on several occasions. Throughput the training process, the selected students will also be taught a number of strategies related to the cognitive abilities tested to optimize their mental functioning fully.
Measuring Progress
The progress of the program will be measured using 15 students who will be divided into an experimental group which mainly consist of two groups, namely the control group and the one who will receive training. The participants involved are of ages 15-25 years. Every participant will be required to give a brief introduction to measure the feasibility of the proposed format (Golino, & Flores-Mendoza, 2016). Additionally, the participants will also be required to answer a short questionnaire that will be used for the assessment of the stimuli.
Conclusion
Cognitive training is essential not only to the school performance of the students but also to the overall health of their brain. Training is a form of exercise for the brain where it can be more active and healthy than it was before. As seen throughout the paper, simple gadgets such as computer and smartphone games can be used to enhance the problem-solving skills of the students by providing them with a complex game that requires them to think. Attention, on the other hand, can be enhanced through visual learning with the help of educational movies which will require them to answer some question at the end to test their concentration. The movies also help in language skills since they are able to see what they learn in class being put into practice hence able to know the application and meaning of some words. The study is essential and of great benefits and should be introduced to more schools to enhance the learning experience of the students. This study included only three significant topics, and therefore, some further research needs to be conducted to ensure that all the other topics are covered.
References
Golino, MTS, & Flores-Mendoza, CE (2016). Development of a cognitive training program for the elderly. Brazilian Journal of Geriatrics and Gerontology, 19 (5), 769-785.
Grunewaldt, K. H., Skranes, J., Brubakk, A. M. & Lähaugen, G. C. C. (2016). Computerized working memory training has positive long‐term effect in very low birthweight preschool children. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 58 (2), 195-201.
Karyotaki, M. & Drigas, A. (2015). Online and other ICT applications for cognitive training and assessment. International Journal of Online Engineering (iJOE) 11 (2), 36-41.
Sanger, K. L., & Dorjee, D. (2015). Mindfulness training for adolescents: A neurodevelopmental perspective on investigating modifications in attention and emotion regulation using event-related brain potentials. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 15 (3), 696-711.
Weinstein, Y., Madan, C. R. & Sumeracki, M. A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3 (2). doi: 10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y.
Zhang, H., Chang, L., Chen, X., Ma, L. & Zhou, R. (2018). Working memory updating training improves mathematics performance in middle school students with learning difficulties. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12 (154), 1-12. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00154.
