The impact of the digital environment on the individual cognitive characteristics of younger schoolchildren

The article is devoted to studying the influence of the degree of involvement in the Internet space on the indicators of memory, attention and thinking of children. The study is novel in providing information about the involvement of younger schoolchildren in the Internet space and interaction with their parents in the digital environment. A psychodiagnostic inventory set applied in the study can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of programs for the development of cognitive abilities of younger schoolchildren at general educational institutions.

The Introduction justifies the relevance of the study and indicates its theoretical basis. The preliminary stage, including the goal, the subject, and the empirical object of the study, is also shown in the introduction section.

In the Methods section, the characteristics of the sample and the methodology of research are described: Method of Express Diagnostics of Intellectual Abilities (MEDIA) by I. S. Averina, E. I. Shabanova and E. N. Zadorina; assessment of stability, concentration, switchability and attention span by the Cancellation Test by Bourdon; study of the short-term memory span by the Jacobs’s method; the author’s questionnaire-survey Assessment of the Involvement of Younger Schoolchildren in the Internet space for parents.

The Results section presents the data obtained during the application of the selected techniques and their description. A comparative analysis of cognitive abilities and the degree of involvement in the Internet space of younger schoolchildren is carried out.

The Discussion section examines the positions of Russian and foreign scientists on the relationship between cognitive features and the influence of digital.

The Conclusion section presents the main interpretations of the data obtained. It has been established that children who spend unlimited time on digital devices have more developed eye-mindedness, allowing them to cope with tasks presented in the form of images better. In addition, they have a high speed of intellectual operations and attention switching associated with the rapid change of characters on the gadgets’ screens.

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