Comparing the effectiveness of strengthening working memory and critical thinking training on emotion regulation strategies of children with special learning disorder

Abstract Objective: To compare the effectiveness of memory work and critical thinking training of children's movement regulation with special methods. Method: The current research was a semi-experimental research with a pre-test, post-test and control group design. The statistical population included all students aged 9 to 12 who referred to the center for special problems in Tabriz district in 2021. Among these, 60 people were selected by purposive sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. The tools used in the research were Garnevsky's cognitive emotion regulation strategies questionnaire, children's version, along with the implementation protocol of interventions to strengthen working memory and critical thinking training. In order to analyze data from covariance and multivariate covariance, hypotheses were analyzed. Findings: Examining the effect size showed that the biggest difference is in the re-evaluation strategy with a coefficient of 0.347 and the positive re-selection strategy with a coefficient of 0.254. The trained examinees found that the two components of positive re-examination and positive re-evaluation in the critical thinking group were significantly different from the memory enhancement group, and it can also be said that the three components of self-blame, skepticism, and catastrophizing in the critical thinking group mean less than the working memory enhancement group. was (p>0.05). Conclusion: In the critical thinking group, the use of adaptive strategies (positive refocusing and positive re-examination) increased significantly and there are significant differences between the effectiveness of critical thinking training and strengthening memories to increase the use of adaptive strategies and decrease the use of maladaptive cognitive-emotional regulation strategies.