How the Cognitive development is defined?

Cognition is defined as “the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses” (Dhakal & Bobrin, 2022) In daily life, we need cognition to make sense out of the sensory input we receive, to learn from experience, and to interact appropriately and safely with the environment. From an information processing point of view (Neisser, 1967), cognition refers to perception and appropriate (re-)action, to encoding, storage, transformation, elaboration, and retrieval of information, to reasoning, problem-solving, and decision making. We will consider how the exposome affects children’s cognitive functions and school achievement/academic attainment, e.g. grades and school-leaving qualifications. Concerning cognitive functions, we will include domain-general cognitive abilities, i.e. abilities that affect performance in complex tasks across several domains; and language functions, including oral and written language skills and their specific precursors, as these skills are key competencies for school success and academic achievement (Council of Europe, 2018).

Concerning domain-general functions, the most basic ability is processing speed, i.e. the ability to provide speeded responses to simple, unambiguous stimuli. Processing speed increases with age until adolescence and is regarded as an indicator of the efficiency of information processing (Kail, 1991). Age-related improvements in processing speed contribute to age-related improvements in more complex abilities, including executive functions (Willoughby, Hong, Hudson, & Wylie, 2020) and reasoning (Kail, Lervag, & Hulme, 2016). Processing speed deficits are associated with language, learning, and attention disorders in children (for review, see Moll et al., 2016), and with mental health disorders in adolescence (Bachman et al., 2012). Beyond processing speed, Equal-Life will focus on attention control, working memory, and higher-order skills like reasoning, problem solving, and planning. Attention control and working memory constitute separate, but interrelated components of Executive Function (EF). EF is an umbrella term referring to cognitive processes that enable volitional control of goal-directed behaviour. EFs allow us to inhibit impulsive but insufficient

responses, to stay focused on a task in the presence of distracting stimuli, to avoid actions that bring immediate rewards but hinder achievement of long-term goals, and to adapt quickly and efficiently to changing requirements.