Incidence of Executive Functions on Reading Comprehension Performance in Adolescents.

DEMAGISTRI, M.S.; RICHARD'S, MARÍA M; CANET JURIC, L.

Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology

Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Almería. Education & Psychology I+D+i (spinoff company), Almeria (Spain), and The Eastern Andalusia Psychological Society (COPAO) (Spain).

Lugar: Almería; Año: 2014 vol. 12 p. 343 - 370

1696-2095

ntroduction. Reading comprehension is a complex cognitive skill that has been associated with executive functions such as working memory (WM) and inhibition. Given that the de-velopment of these abilities continues through late adolescence, this study seeks to explore the role that both processes play with respect to varying levels of reading comprehension perfor-mance in adolescents in two age groups.Method.  We evaluated performance in the comprehension of texts, WM, inhibition, reading fluency and verbal skills in 104 adolescents (12/13 years of age n= 53; 17/18 years of age n= 51).Results. We found that reading comprehension performance, WM and inhibition increased significantly with age. Further, a partial correlation showed that reading comprehension is associated with: verbal skills, WM and inhibition. Lastly, group difference testing indicates that students with high and low comprehension performance differ significantly in verbal skills and executive functioning in the 12/13 age group. In the 17/18 age group, however, they only differed significantly in terms of verbal skills.Conclusion. Reading comprehension, WM and inhibition improve during adolescence. How-ever, the relationship among these abilities differs by age group.