Neurocognitive Foundations of Abstract Reasoning in Middle Childhood
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26740/jrpd.v12n3.p347-366Keywords:
Educational Neuroscience, Executive Function, Abstract Reasoning, Error Monitoring, Cognitive ChronobiologyAbstract
Limited research has jointly examined how error monitoring, multidimensional inhibition, white matter pathways, and daily biological rhythms relate to abstract reasoning during middle childhood, the period in which children aged 7 to 12 years move from concrete to abstract thinking. This systematic review followed PRISMA 2020, searched Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed between January and March 2026 for neuroscience and cognitive studies published from 2020 to 2026, identified 485 records, and appraised 23 included studies with the Joanna Briggs Institute checklists. Narrative synthesis produced six coded themes showing that children in a task-switching study made more consecutive errors and showed smaller post-error slowing than adults while recruiting the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, that white matter microstructure was related to age and arithmetic performance, that response inhibition was related to visuospatial working memory in young adults, that far transfer from executive function training was limited, that cognitively engaging physical activity and guided play showed small to moderate benefits, and that sleep and class timing were related to cognitive performance. These findings indicate that abstract reasoning in middle childhood is supported by interacting neural and biological conditions, and the proposed neuropedagogical framework should be treated as a set of hypotheses that require classroom-based experimental testing.
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