How does cognitive function measured by the reaction time and critical flicker fusion frequency correlate with the acade
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(2020) 20:507
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
How does cognitive function measured by the reaction time and critical flicker fusion frequency correlate with the academic performance of students? Archana Prabu Kumar1,2, Abirami Omprakash2, Maheshkumar Kuppusamy3, Maruthy K.N.4, Sathiyasekaran B.W.C.5, Vijayaraghavan P.V.6 and Padmavathi Ramaswamy2*
Abstract Background: The reaction time (RT) is “the time taken for the appearance of rapid voluntary reaction by an individual following a stimulus, either auditory or visual” and the Critical Flickering Fusion Frequency (CFFF) is “the rate at which successively presented light stimuli appear to be steady and continuous”. RT and CFFF are commonly used for the assessment of cognitive functions that are known to influence academic performance. However, data about the exact correlation between these are scarce, particularly in India. This research aimed to study the association between visual RT (VRT), auditory RT (ART) and CFFF and their impact on the academic performance of undergraduate students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 700 students of Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at a private medical university in South India, during the period from 2015 to 2017. The VRT, ART and CFFF were evaluated, and the best out of three subsequent attempts was recorded. The mean score (in percentage) of the three best marks out of the five internal assessments for the course during each academic year was considered for analysis. The association between the different cognitive tests and the average academic performance was analysed. Results: Female students had faster VRT (n = 345, mean = 243.97, SD = 83.87) than male students (n = 273, mean = 274.86, SD = 96.97) (p = 0.001). VRT and ART had a moderate negative correlation with academic performance (for ART, r = − 0.42, p < 0.001; for VRT; r = − 0.40, p < 0.001). CFFF had a very weak positive correlation with academic performance (r = 0.19, p = 0.01). The only independent predictors of academic performance were RT and gender (Adjusted R2 = 0.11). (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 2 Department of Physiology, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Porur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by st
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