ERIC Number: EJ1468403
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Apr
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0034-0553
EISSN: EISSN-1936-2722
Available Date: 2025-04-03
Integrating Executive Function Activities into a Computerized Cognitive Training to Enhance Reading Comprehension in Primary Students
Costanza Ruffini1; Eleonora Pizzigallo2; Chiara Pecini1; Laura Bertolo3; Barbara Carretti2
Reading Research Quarterly, v60 n2 e70006 2025
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 fourth graders were involved in this study and randomly divided into experimental (n = 156, M[subscript age] = 9.06, SD = 0.62) and control (n = 107, M[subscript age] = 9.21, SD = 0.63) groups. All the children of the experimental group attended 9 training sessions, twice a week, for approximately 1 h and 30 min each within the school context during teaching hours. The intervention proposed several exercises requiring EF processes implicated in text comprehension (e.g., identifying incongruences in the text, ordering events) through a metacognitive approach. The intervention was as standardized as possible through digitalization of the activities and videotaped explanations and demonstrations. The intervention proved to be feasible and effective in enhancing processes relevant for reading comprehension, verbal updating working memory, and nonverbal reasoning, and individual differences in pre-test performances and EF predicted the gains obtained by the training. The study provides a good model of intervention on the cognitive control processes underpinning text comprehension in primary graders.
Descriptors: Executive Function, Computer Assisted Instruction, Training, Reading Instruction, Reading Comprehension, Elementary School Students, Metacognition, Short Term Memory, Nonverbal Learning, Individual Differences
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Dipartimento di Formazione, Lingue, Intercultura, Letterature e Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy; 2Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy; 3ASL 5 La Spezia, Neuropsichiatria Infantile, La Spezia, Italy