2022
Tabullo, Ángel Javier; Benegas, Juan Manuel; Vernucci, Santiago
INTRODUCTION
Reading comprehension difficulties are one
the most serious problems among high
school students (OECD, 2019).
Theoretical models of reading (Buttefuss and
Kendeou, 2018) and empirical evidence
(Follmer, 2018) indicate the role of cognitive
abilities, such as executive functions (EF) in
comprehension. However, few studies have
compared EF contribution to expository
and narratve text comprehension in high
school students. The present study
examined these associations in secondary
schools students from Mendoza, while
controlling for their language skills
(vocabulary and reading fluency).
RESULTS
A repeated measures ANOVA indicated
that: 1) comprehension was better for
narrative texts (F (1.113) = 23.799, p <
0.001, µ2p = 0.174), 2) girls
outperformed boys (F (1.113) = 4.991, p
= 0.027, µ2p = 0.042).
Multiple regression analyses of reading
comprehension scores
After controlling for vocabulary, reading
fluency and demographic variables,
Expository text comprehension
improved with cognitive flexibility (p =
.034) and verbal working memory (p =
.013) scores. In addition, comprehension
was significantly worse in 3rd year
students (p = .022).
Narrative text comprehension
improved with reading fluency scores
(p =.034), and it was significantly lower in
boys (p = .015) and 3rd year students
(p = .021). Executive functions did not
contribute to explain additional variance.
PARTICIPANTS
One hundred and twenty one high
school students (76.5% girls, mean
age: 13.9 ± 0.9 years old) participated
in the study.
Span dígitos inverso
Reading comprehension sccores by
text and grade.
Estimated marginal means of expository
text comprehension scores by: verbal
working memory, cognitive flexibility and
grade
Estimated marginal means of narrative text
comprehension scores by: reading fluency,
grade and gender.
METHODS
Session 1: classroom pencil and
paper tasks
Reading comprehension: Expository
and narrative text comprehension
tests (TLC-II; Abusamra et al., 2010).
Reading fluency: Reading efficacy
test (TECLE; China et al., 2018)
.
Session 2: computerized tasks
Vocabulary: BAIRES test short form
(Cortada de Kohan, 1998).
TAC battery (Richards et al., 2017):
Perceptual inhibition (visual search),
Cognitive flexibility (fingers task),
Visuospatial working memory.
Verbal working memory: backward
digits span (computer version).
DISCUSSION
The specific contribution of EF to
expository text comprehension in
adolescents is compatible with previous
evidence suggesting a higher cognitive
demand for this particular genre (Mar,
2021).
Associations with cognitive flexibility and
working memory may be reflecting: 1) the
cost of alternating between sources of
information, reading strategies or
inference making and 2) integrating and
updating mental text models with
incoming words.
The lower performance observed in third
year students might be due to
detrimental effects of the pandemic (i.e.:
remote schooling, stress) on their
reading comprehension development.
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