The Effectiveness of Cognitive Rehabilitation Intervention on Executive Functions of Underachievement Students: Improving the Regulation of Cognition, Behavior and Emotion

Executive functions are superior actions of the brain's nervous system that perform a set of high-level abilities including cognitive regulation, behavioral regulation, and emotional regulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation intervention on executive functions of underachieving students in Shiraz. The research design was a pre-test and post-test with a control group. The statistical population of the research was all underachieving students in Shiraz. From the aforementioned statistical population, 40 students were selected as the research sample by random cluster sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental group (20 students) and control group (20 students).  In order to collect research data, the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Functions-Second Edition was used. The cognitive rehabilitation training program was implemented for 10 sessions for the experimental group. The findings from multivariate analysis of covariance showed that cognitive rehabilitation training was effective in improving executive function indices (cognitive regulation, behavioral regulation, and emotional regulation) of underachieving students. In other words, cognitive rehabilitation training has led to improvements in students' executive functions. Given the effectiveness of this program, school specialists and counselors can use this training program to improve the executive functions of underachiever students