The dynamics of intellectual functions in Russian preschoolers during the emergence of internet technologies

Aim. The article deals with justifying the hypothesis about a decrease in the intellectual abilities of preschoolers during the emergence of internet technologies. Materials and methods. We conducted a pseudo-longitudinal investigation in two series: in 2006 and 2014. The efficiency of intellectual activity was measured in the preschoolers aged 6-7 years from the same educational establishment and the same speech development program. The total sample of the study is 135 persons (100 preschoolers were examined in 2006; 35 preschoolers were examined in 2014). The average age of children from the first sample was 6.5 ± 0.6 years, from the second sample - 6.6±1.1. The assessment of general and nonverbal intellect was conducted with the Raven matrix test. The verbal and terminological components of intellectual activity were assessed with the author’s method of a targeted associative experiment (Kamenskaya et al., 2011). Test performance was compared with the stochastic parameters of RR-intervals recording which was made before and after the test. The duration of ECG recording was 5 minutes. The total time without any spontaneous movements was equal 10 minutes. ECG processing was performed with the method of nonlinear stochastic RR-intervals recording, which provided information about the frequency and spectrum of cardiac intervals fluctuations in each series. The statistical processing of the results obtained and their interpretation were performed with the SPSS-15 software for Windows-7. The significance of differences was assessed with a Student’s t-criterion for independent samples. Results. We revealed a statistically significant increase in general and nonverbal intellect in the second sample compared to the first sample. Verbal-logical intellect has changed neither in boys nor in girls during the active emergence of internet technologies. The parameters of nonlinear stochastic intervals recording were not connected in a certain way with the changes in the indicators of intellectual activity. Conclusion. The hypothesis on a negative effect of internet technologies on the intellectual functions of modern preschoolers was not proved.