It is acknowledged the need for interventions to improve reading comprehension and its cognitive underpinnings, such as executive functions. The present study implemented a computerized cognitive training for enhancing reading comprehension in primary school children through EF activities embedded in text comprehension exercises. 263 third and…

Physical activity (PA) is well-documented to benefit students' executive function (EF) and academic performance. However, prevailing research has predominantly focused on domain-general EF (across academic domains) while overlooking domain-specific EF (within specific subjects). To address this gap, this opinion article proposes an integrative…

This longitudinal study explores the associations between children's executive functions at the beginning of preschool and their learning behaviors, namely competence motivation and attentional persistence, at the end of preschool. Participants were 218 Portuguese children (M[subscript age]= 40.4 months, SD= 4.2; 52% boys) and their preschool…

Previous research has found mixed results for a link between executive function and perspective-taking. One proposed reason for this is that perspective-taking during comprehension tasks may not be internally reliable. This dissertation presents two large individual differences experiments with multiple perspective-taking during comprehension and…

Identifying factors that contribute to spatial thinking is of great interest given links between spatial thinking and success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Working memory has been found to be predictive of spatial thinking but little research has explored other components of executive function (i.e.,…

Caregiver executive functions (EFs) play an integral role in shaping cognitive development. Here, we investigated how caregiver EF abilities (86 caregivers; "mean age" = 33.4 years, SD = 4.5) was associated with visual working memory (VWM) in infants (86 infants females; mean age = 250.6 days, SD = 35.8). The BRIEF-A was used to assess…

The ability of the brain to extract patterns from the environment and predict future events, known as statistical learning, has been proposed to interact in a competitive manner with prefrontal lobe-related networks and their characteristic cognitive or executive functions. However, it remains unclear whether these cognitive functions also possess…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and behaviors or interests. Besides behavioral, psychopharmacological and biomedical interventions there is increasing evidence of non-invasive treatments like neurofeedback (NFB) that can improve brain…

This study explored the impact of oxidation-reduction reaction problem difficulty on university students' cognitive load using event-related potentials (ERPs). Forty-eight balanced low and high difficulty problems were designed. Fifteen undergraduate students majoring in chemistry (8 females and 7 males) participated in the study. Results…

Executive functions have both direct and indirect effects on reading comprehension. Previous studies have shown that people with hearing loss (HL) perform poorly on executive functions and reading comprehension tasks. This scoping review explored the current state of the literature relating executive function and reading comprehension in children…

Learning in a multimedia environment puts many demands on a learner's limited working memory, but this can become even more demanding as the level of distraction increases in a lesson. What has not been investigated much in previous literature is whether higher levels of distraction in lessons are more harmful to some learners than others. This…

Executive functions are higher order mental processes individuals use during academic tasks (Diamond, 2013). Few studies examined executive functions in braille reading. Additionally, most studies located by the primary researcher were studies analyzing group differences between individuals with visual impairments and those who are sighted and…

Executive functions (EF) and task persistence are key factors in academic development. However, EF and persistence have rarely been examined together, and it remains unclear whether these two constructs are independently related to intellectual development. The present study addressed this gap by examining whether EF and persistence in…

Background: An interplay of emotional and cognitive aspects underlies academic performance. We focused on the contribution of such interplay to text comprehension. Aims: We investigated the effect of worry on comprehension and the role of two potential moderators of this effect: physiological self-regulation as resting heart rate variability (HRV)…

Developing children's FMS and executive function is a critical aspect of early childhood. The aim was to evaluate the fundamental movement skills (FMS) and executive function. The objectives were to investigate the locomotor and object control skills as well as inhibitory control and working memory of the selected children. Grade 1 (6-8-years-old)…