Article 19th (How Storage And Executive Functions Contribute to Children's Reading Comprehension)

Reading comprehension is the product of a complex integration of multiple skills. Several studies have investigated whether individual differences in reading comprehension are best explained by the processing aspects or by the storage aspects of working memory tasks. There is substantial evidence that tasks measuring processing in addition to storage, such as the listening span task, are better indicators of reading comprehension performance than tasks assessing the temporary storage of information only, such as the word span task.

Two areas of research speak to whether these domain general executive functions contribute to individual variation in reading comprehension. Firstly, largely separate studies have shown that different executive functions explain variance in reading comprehension performance. Secondly, in a small number of recent studies an indirect relation between inhibition and children's reading comprehension, via working memory tasks, has been reported.  In summary, domain-specific working memory, commonly assessed with a listening span task, has been found to be a significant predictor of variation in reading comprehension even when word recognition and language ability are taken into account. The current study included non-verbal cognitive ability, word recognition and vocabulary as control measures, a listening span to reflect an integrated construct of working memory, and a storage measure and separate measures of the executive functions' inhibition and cognitive flexibility, as well as the higher order executive function planning. Non-verbal cognitive ability, word-recognition, vocabulary, storage and executive functions were expected to directly contribute to reading comprehension. The contribution of storage and executive functions was expected to decrease after accounting for performance on the listening span task.

Annisa Masnasuri Kesai

16611069

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