Specialized cognitive function and school achievement

Abstract

Individual differences in performance on academic achievement tests were studied in relation to tasks of specialized cognitive function associated with processing in the right and left cerebral hemispheres. In 1,042 elementary‐school (fourth‐ and fifth‐grade) children, it was found that those who performed better on visuospatial skills than on “verbosequential” skills performed more poorly on reading and language achievement but not on arithmetic—in comparison with children who had the reverse profile (performing better on verbosequential skills than on visuospatial skills). These results held true after measures of overall performance were partialed out, suggesting that the cognitive profile accounted for some of the group differences. It was also demonstrated that the reading scores for the visuospatial profile group tended to be distributed bimodally, whereas the scores for the verbosequential profile group were not. These data suggest that individual differences in achievement are related, in part, to individual differences in development of cerebral processes.