Distinguishing Direct and Indirect Effects of Executive Functions on Reading Comprehension in Adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated direct and indirect effects of executive functions on reading comprehension in adolescents (N = 87, M = 14.0 years, SD = 1.5) by testing for parallel mediation of effects of working memory, task-switching, and inhibitory control via decoding and text recall/inference. Working memory showed direct and indirect effects on passage comprehension, the latter mediated by text recall/inference. Task-switching was associated with decoding but its relation to passage comprehension was not significant. Inhibitory control showed indirect effects on passage comprehension via decoding and text recall/inference. Results indicate overlapping but distinct contributions of executive functions to reading skills.

Acknowledgments

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. We would also like to acknowledge researchers at Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in Education (CREATE) Lab at New York University for assisting with the data collection for this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by a research grant from the Institute of Educational Sciences, US Department of Education (Grant #R305A150417) awarded to Dr. J.L.P. and Dr. B.D.H. The research was also supported by Early Research Initiative of the Graduate Center CUNY for the award of a Provost’s Pre-Dissertation Fellowship to T.O. The findings of this work will also appear in the 2019 CogSci Conference Proceedings.