Roles of Attention Shifting and Inhibitory Control in Fourth‐Grade Reading Comprehension

Executive functioning (EF) refers to a set of higher order, core cognitive processes that facilitate planning, problem solving, and the initiation and maintenance of goal-directed behavior. Although recent research has established the importance of EF for word reading development in early childhood, few studies have investigated the role of EF in reading comprehension during middle childhood. This study investigated the relations between two specific dimensions of EF—attention shifting and inhibitory control—and reading comprehension for students in fourth grade (N = 120). Specifically, we used path analysis to investigate the direct, unique associations of attention shifting and inhibitory control with reading comprehension as well as the indirect associations with reading comprehension via language comprehension and word reading, controlling for working memory, processing speed, and phonological awareness. Results indicated that both attention shifting and inhibitory control demonstrated unique direct associations with reading comprehension. Attention shifting also demonstrated a significant indirect association via language comprehension. Findings support growing evidence for the importance of these EF dimensions to reading, raise questions about potential mechanisms underlying links between EF and reading comprehension, and offer implications for understanding and addressing reading comprehension difficulties.

[1]  B. Muthén,et al.  How to Use a Monte Carlo Study to Decide on Sample Size and Determine Power , 2002 .

[2]  W. Steven Barnett,et al.  Educational effects of the Tools of the Mind curriculum: A randomized trial , 2008 .

[3]  The Concept of Bootstrapping of Structural Equation Models with Smaller Samples: An Illustration Using Mealtime Rituals in Diabetes Management , 2011, Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBP.

[4]  Craig K. Enders,et al.  The Relative Performance of Full Information Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Missing Data in Structural Equation Models , 2001 .

[5]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Individual differences in working memory and reading , 1980 .

[6]  Kate Cain,et al.  Individual differences in children's memory and reading comprehension: An investigation of semantic and inhibitory deficits , 2006, Memory.

[7]  Charles A. Perfetti,et al.  The Acquisition of Reading Comprehension Skill , 2008 .

[8]  B. Pennington,et al.  Executive functions and developmental psychopathology. , 1996, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[9]  Li‐Chih Wang,et al.  Cognitive inhibition in students with and without dyslexia and dyscalculia. , 2012, Research in developmental disabilities.

[10]  Conor V. Dolan,et al.  Source (or Part of the following Source): Type Article Title Age-related Change in Executive Function: Developmental Trends and a Latent Variable Analysis Author(s) Age-related Change in Executive Function: Developmental Trends and a Latent Variable Analysis , 2022 .

[11]  Brenda Hannon,et al.  Understanding the Relative Contributions of Lower‐Level Word Processes, Higher‐Level Processes, and Working Memory to Reading Comprehension Performance in Proficient Adult Readers , 2012 .

[12]  Nikos Bozionelos,et al.  Causal path modeling: what it does and what it does not tell us , 2003 .

[13]  S. Paris,et al.  Children's Metacognition About Reading: issues in Definition, Measurement, and Instruction , 1987 .

[14]  A. Diamond,et al.  Preschool Program Improves Cognitive Control , 2007, Science.

[15]  Hugh W. Catts,et al.  The Connections between Language and Reading Disabilities , 2005 .

[16]  J. Fantuzzo,et al.  CSRP's Impact on low-income preschoolers' preacademic skills: self-regulation as a mediating mechanism. , 2011, Child development.

[17]  Michael J. Kieffer,et al.  Components and Context , 2012, Journal of learning disabilities.

[18]  Janet A. Welsh,et al.  The Development of Cognitive Skills and Gains in Academic School Readiness for Children from Low-Income Families. , 2010, Journal of educational psychology.

[19]  Jane Oakhill,et al.  Profiles of children with specific reading comprehension difficulties. , 2006, The British journal of educational psychology.

[20]  J. Nigg.  On inhibition/disinhibition in developmental psychopathology: views from cognitive and personality psychology and a working inhibition taxonomy. , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[21]  G. Scerif,et al.  Executive Functioning as a Predictor of Children's Mathematics Ability: Inhibition, Switching, and Working Memory , 2001, Developmental neuropsychology.

[22]  K. Stanovich,et al.  The Relationships between Phonological Sensitivity, Syntactic Processing, and Verbal Working Memory in the Reading Performance of Third-Grade Children , 1996, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[23]  C. Blair,et al.  Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. , 2007, Child development.

[24]  J. Fisk,et al.  Age-Related Impairment in Executive Functioning: Updating, Inhibition, Shifting, and Access , 2004, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[25]  Jeffrey J. Walczyk.  The Interplay Between Automatic and Control Processes in Reading , 2000 .

[26]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  A power primer. , 1992, Psychological bulletin.

[27]  Michael J. Kieffer,et al.  Growth in reading-related skills of language minority learners and their classmates: more evidence for early identification and intervention , 2013 .

[28]  E. Mahone,et al.  Effects of fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance , 2009, Annals of dyslexia.

[29]  Paola Palladino,et al.  Intrusion errors in working memory tasks , 2000 .

[30]  Reiko Mazuka,et al.  Development of Executive Control and Language Processing , 2009, Lang. Linguistics Compass.

[31]  Laurie E Cutting,et al.  The Contribution of Executive Skills to Reading Comprehension , 2009, Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence.

[32]  J. Bowey,et al.  Phonological Analysis Skills, Verbal Working Memory, and Reading Ability in Second‐Grade Children , 1994 .

[33]  Philip B. Gough,et al.  The simple view of reading , 1990 .

[34]  Steven Laureys,et al.  Exploring the unity and diversity of the neural substrates of executive functioning , 2005, Human brain mapping.

[35]  Philip B. Gough,et al.  Decoding, Reading, and Reading Disability , 1986 .

[36]  Akira Miyake,et al.  Predicting word reading and comprehension with executive function and speed measures across development: a latent variable analysis. , 2012, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[37]  Irina A. Sekerina,et al.  The kindergarten-path effect: studying on-line sentence processing in young children , 1999, Cognition.

[38]  P. H. Miller,et al.  Executive Functions after Age 5: Changes and Correlates. , 2009, Developmental review : DR.

[39]  Athanassios Protopapas,et al.  Reading ability is negatively related to Stroop interference , 2007, Cognitive Psychology.

[40]  S. Jay Samuels,et al.  Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading , 1974 .

[41]  J. Oakhill,et al.  Children's Reading Comprehension Ability: Concurrent Prediction by Working Memory, Verbal Ability, and Component Skills. , 2004 .

[42]  M. Willoughby,et al.  Executive function in early childhood: longitudinal measurement invariance and developmental change. , 2012, Psychological assessment.

[43]  M. Brass,et al.  Involvement of the inferior frontal junction in cognitive control: Meta‐analyses of switching and Stroop studies , 2005, Human brain mapping.

[44]  Anne Boomsma,et al.  Small-Sample Robust Estimators of Noncentrality-Based and Incremental Model Fit , 2009 .

[45]  J. Trueswell,et al.  The developing constraints on parsing decisions: The role of lexical-biases and referential scenes in child and adult sentence processing , 2004, Cognitive Psychology.

[46]  M. Barnes,et al.  Meaning construction and integration in children with hydrocephalus , 2004, Brain and Language.

[47]  Janice F. Almasi,et al.  Beyond Direct Explanation: Transactional Instruction of Reading Comprehension Strategies , 1992, The Elementary School Journal.

[48]  M. Just,et al.  From the SelectedWorks of Marcel Adam Just 1992 A capacity theory of comprehension : Individual differences in working memory , 2017 .

[49]  P. F. Jong.  Working Memory Deficits of Reading Disabled Children , 1998 .

[50]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension-Monitoring Activities , 1984 .

[51]  Shirley A. Wagoner.  Comprehension Monitoring: What It Is and What We Know About It. , 1983 .

[52]  W. Warde,et al.  THE COMPONENT MODEL OF READING: SIMPLE VIEW OF READING MADE A LITTLE MORE COMPLEX , 2000 .

[53]  E. Mahone,et al.  Executive Dysfunction Among Children With Reading Comprehension Deficits , 2010, Journal of learning disabilities.

[54]  M. J. Emerson,et al.  The Unity and Diversity of Executive Functions and Their Contributions to Complex “Frontal Lobe” Tasks: A Latent Variable Analysis , 2000, Cognitive Psychology.

[55]  Jane Oakhill,et al.  Inference making ability and its relation to comprehension failure in young children , 1999 .

[56]  R. Barkley.  Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. , 1997, Psychological bulletin.

[57]  Scott D. Gest,et al.  Promoting academic and social-emotional school readiness: the head start REDI program. , 2008, Child development.

[58]  Peter F. de Jong,et al.  Executive Functioning in Children, and Its Relations with Reasoning, Reading, and Arithmetic. , 2007 .

[59]  W. Kintsch.  The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: a construction-integration model. , 1988, Psychological review.

[60]  L. Pulkkinen,et al.  Dimensions of executive functioning: Evidence from children , 2003 .

[61]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Neuroimaging studies of working memory: , 2003, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.

[62]  P. David Pearson,et al.  Moving From the Old to the New: Research on Reading Comprehension Instruction , 1991 .

[63]  A. Miyake,et al.  The separability of working memory resources for spatial thinking and language processing: an individual differences approach. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. General.