ERIC Number: EJ1422176
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-May
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0141-0423
EISSN: EISSN-1467-9817
The Role of Executive Functions in 9- to 12-year-old Children's Sentence Processing: An Eye-Movement Study
Nannan Cui; Yang Wang; Jiefei Luo; Yan Wu
Journal of Research in Reading, v47 n2 p201-219 2024
Background: Executive function (EF) plays a crucial role in children's reading. However, previous studies were based on offline products of reading comprehension. Online research is needed to reveal the core mechanisms underlying children's reading processing. By measuring children's working memory (WM) and cognitive flexibility (CF), we investigated whether individual differences in EF could modulate sentence processing and, if so, how they exert their roles. Methods: The present study manipulated semantic congruency and the association between crucial words in a sentence. We recruited 89 Chinese children aged 9-12 years and monitored their eye movement. Results: The study revealed distinct associations between reader- and text-related characteristics, as evidenced by eye-movement patterns during reading. A significant incongruency effect was observed in reading, underscoring the children's capacity to discern incongruent information. Children's WM and CF were found to modulate this process. Specifically, high-WM children showed more effective integration of incongruent information when the textual context was closely related during the later-stage processing. In contrast, low-WM children faced more challenges with incongruent words. Additionally, CF was influential during the early processing period. High-CF children exhibited longer early-stage reading times for incongruent words in associated contexts. Conclusions: Individual differences in EF can modulate children's online sentence processing. However, different EF components may play different roles.
Descriptors: Executive Function, Eye Movements, Reading Comprehension, Reading Processes, Correlation, Reader Text Relationship, Short Term Memory, Cognitive Ability, Barriers, Word Recognition, Elementary School Students, Chinese, Foreign Countries
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://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A