Impacts of cognitive depletion during a school day: research conducted among adolescents in the Dutch secondary education system

Abstract

The relation of academic performance and length of the school day is a central topic . The problems of research is the way that the effects the length of a school day are calculated. Often grades are a central part, these measures can be subjective by nature. The real question should be if adolescents are performing the same throughout the day. Cognitive depletion could lead to worse performances later in the day. Therefore, the main research question: What are the determinants of cognitive depletion among adolescents in the Netherlands? To answer this research question, a 2x2 design is used. Socioeconomic status, length of school day and chronotype are used as main variables. The main conclusion is that explanatory variables Chronotype, socioeconomic class and length of school day do not seem to impact cognitive depletion throughout the school day. Control variables like sleep and academic level seem more impactful in cognitive depletion.