Computational thinking: A new way to train working memory?

Abstract

Computational thinking is a new concept which has been adquiring relevance in the last few years. There are some evidences of trainings based on this new concept improving different cognitive abilities. In this paper, it has been used a training based on computational thinking, designed by "aula cultural de pensamiento computacional" and the general foundation of the University of La Laguna. This training was applied to 49 students of secondary obligatory education who had been divided into two groups: one group received the training with a methodology based in guide learning and the other group received the training based on selflearning methodology. The main objective of this paper is to prove that training can improve the measures of working memory and check if the participants who have a high level of working memory take more benefits of the training. The results show that the training based on non-specific methodology in computational thinking improved the measures of working memory. In addition, there was no evidence of a higher level of benefit of the training in most of the tasks in the participants who have a high working memory level.