Impact of Maternal Education on Fluid Intelligence, Working Memory, Short Term Memory and Processing Speed of School Students

Abstract

Aim of the Study: Present study aimed to explore the impact of mother’s education level on core cognitive functions like working memory, processing speed, short term memory and fluid intelligence.

Methodology: A sample of 300 students (boys=150, girls=150) studying in 9^th, 10^th, and O Level, with age range 15-16 years were selected from schools by using two stage cluster sampling technique. Correlational and comparative research design was used for the present study. Demographic information form was used to collect personal, educational, and familial information of participants. Working memory index, processing speed index, digit span from WICS-IV and Standard Progressive Matrices were used to assess working memory capacity, information processing speed, short term memory and fluid intelligence. After getting consent from participants to participate in the study, all study variables were assessed with face-to-face interaction in individual setting. Collected data was arranged and analyzed using SPSS version 27.

Findings: After checking the normality of the collected data, Pearson correlation was used to find the association of study variables with one another and MANOVA was used to assess the impact of mother’s education on study variables. Results showed significant correlation among fluid intelligence, working memory, short term memory and processing speed. Results revealed significant impact of Mother’s education on all study variables.

Conclusion: According to results, highly significant difference was found between the levels of mother’s education on the mean score of the students on all study variables. Students with more educated mothers showed better working memory, fluid intelligence, processing speed and short-term memory. The findings of the present study provide in depth and detailed information to educationist, educational Psychologists and parents about the development of core cognitive processes.