Executive functions (EF) and intelligence are of critical importance to success in many everyday tasks. Working memory, or updating, which is one latent variable identified in confirmatory factor analytic models of executive functions, predicts intelligence (both fluid and crystallised) in adults, but inhibition and shifting do not (Friedman et…

The aims of this study were to investigate whether the executive functions, inhibition, shifting, and updating, are distinguishable as latent variables (common factors) in children aged 9 to 12, and to examine the relations between these executive functions and reading, arithmetic, and (non)verbal reasoning. Confirmatory factor analysis was used…

Results of two experiments involving 206 upper elementary school students supported the hypothesis that less-skilled readers suffer working memory deficits that contribute to comprehension problems independent of their problems in phonological coding. Results also suggest that constraints in an executive system may contribute to reading…

Explored the contribution of two working memory systems, the articulatory loop and the central executive, and short-term memory to the word recognition and comprehension deficits of children with learning disabilities. Results of 2 experiments with 150 children support the idea that poor word recognition and comprehension reflect deficits in a…

The independent contributions of ethnicity and socioeconomic status to intellectual and academic functioning in children with diabetes were studied with 58 diabetic children and 58 comparisons. Findings indicate that black children with diabetes, regardless of social class, are at greater risk for intellectual deficits and learning problems than…

Three experiments involving 85 learning-disabled (LD) children and 101 non-LD children investigated whether memory difficulties of LD children may be attributable in part to executive processing. Results suggest that LD readers may suffer from executive processing deficiencies, although they do not rule out effects of language-specific processes.…

This study evaluated the diagnostic validity of a task measuring abstract categorization ability in learning disabled (LD) and non-LD children. Data showed that the component of abstract category knowledge that best disciminates LD children from non-LD, is the knowledge of how members of abstract categories differ from each other. (Author/JAZ)

Individual differences in digit span, susceptibility to proactive interference, and various aptitude/achievement test scores were investigated in two experiments with college students. Results indicated that digit span was strongly correlated with aptitude/achievement scores, but did not indicate that susceptibility to proactive interference…

The differences between learning disabled (LD) and non-LD children's problem-solving protocols were analyzed during a picture arrangement task. Although the groups of 29 LD and 27 non-LD children were comparable in global mental processing and task performance, LD children had difficulty with representing problems and deleting irrelevant…

Reading deficits among elementary-aged learning disabled children with suspected neurocognitive dysfunctions were calculated. The children were grouped according to IQ profiles. Results indicated that the pattern of high verbal-low performance IQs was associated with the least deficiency in reading ; this association was evident as early as second…

Models of working memory were compared in 2 experiments as means of explaining variance in the comprehension of 95 skilled and 80 learning-disabled readers from grades 4 through 7. Results suggest that learning-disabled children's working memory problems are functionally related to higher order processes and not memory alone. (SLD)