The role of midfrontal theta oscillations across the development of cognitive control in preschoolers and school‐age children
DOI: 10.1111/desc.12936
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
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Summary
This study investigates whether pretend play training can enhance cognitive control and socioemotional skills in preschoolers, and whether these behavioral improvements are underpinned by changes in neural mechanisms. Motivated by the need for efficient, low-cost interventions to support school readiness—particularly for children facing socioeconomic disadvantages—the authors examined if isolating the sociodramatic play component of the "Tools of the Mind" curriculum yields similar benefits to the full program. The research specifically aimed to link behavioral outcomes with mid-frontal theta (MFT) oscillations, a neural marker associated with cognitive control. The researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial with 72 preschool children (aged 4–6 years) from two schools in France. Participants were paired and randomly assigned to either a pretend play training group or an active control group to ensure homogeneity in age, sex, non-verbal intelligence, vocabulary, and baseline cognitive control. The intervention lasted 10 weeks, consisting of two 45-minute sessions per week. The training group engaged in scaffolded pretend play activities designed to increase play maturity and executive function demands, while the control group participated in alternative activities. Assessments were conducted pre- and post-intervention using behavioral tasks (Hearts & Flowers task for cognitive control; Head-To-Toes task for self-regulation), standardized tests for vocabulary and non-verbal intelligence, and parent-reported questionnaires for socio-affective skills and executive functioning. Additionally, a subsample of 52 children underwent EEG recording during the cognitive control task to measure MFT power and latency. The provided text details the experimental design, measures, and hypotheses but does not contain the results section or specific findings regarding the efficacy of the intervention. Consequently, the summary cannot report on whether the pretend play training significantly improved cognitive control, socioemotional skills, or altered MFT neural markers compared to the control group. The text establishes the theoretical framework linking pretend play to executive functions and the methodological rigor of the study, including the use of pairwise randomization and multi-level assessment (behavioral, cognitive, and neural), but omits the empirical outcomes necessary to evaluate the study's conclusions.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | OpenAlex-citations | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| archive | success | semantic_scholar | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-20 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-20 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
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