The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which children’s executive function predicted their reading comprehension performance. Participants were approximately 18,000 kindergartners in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011. The results suggest that individual differences in reading comprehension were influenced by variations in executive function. Cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory all accounted for unique variance in reading comprehension. Language comprehension and fluency mediated the relations between children’s executive function and their reading comprehension. Working memory accounted for the highest total effect among the three core aspects of executive function. Children’s first-grade language comprehension contributed the most indirect effect, while fluency had the reading comprehension. The importance of considering ways to improve executive function, language comprehension, and fluency when implementing reading instruction and what the parents can do to help their children’s executive function and reading skills are discussed.

This study explored the influence of early literacy and numeracy skills on fourth-grade math achievement using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The study utilized valuable information collected by TIMSS about context related questionnaires such as home resources for learning, early literacy and numeracy development, readiness for school, and students’ home and school lives in a cross cultural and linguistic framework. The main purpose of this study was aligned with those of TIMSS to improve math learning and performance and strengthen future employees’ skills in the global workplace. Participants were comprised of mostly Asian and European students. Results show that (1) early literacy skills have a stronger effect on G4 math scores than early numeracy skills; (2) Home resources for learning impact more on children’s early literacy skills than early numeracy skills; (3) both early literacy and numeracy activities have progressed to early literacy skills but demonstrated limited advancement to early numeracy skills, a missing link; (4) students’ confidence in math emerged as the strongest predictor of G4 math scores; (5) students with stronger early literacy skills and early numeracy skills are more confident in math; and (6) The moderated mediation analysis revealed that (a) early literacy skills have stronger direct effects on G4 math achievement than early numeracy skills; (b) the effects of early numeracy skills on G4 math scores become more pronounced for children with weaker early literacy skills (i.e., conditional effects); and (c) the effect of early numeracy skills on G4 math achievement is transmitted through students’ confidence (i.e., mediator) and the effect is more prominent for those who had more proficient early literacy skills (i.e., conditional indirect effects). Findings from the conditional direct and indirect effects of early numeracy skills on G4 math achievement suggest that children who had more proficient early literacy skills utilize strategies beyond just early numeracy skills to solve G4 math problems and that children’s strategies to solve math problems may be enhanced by the proficiency of their literacy skills.

The present study investigates the interplay between proficiency and empathy in the development of second language (L2) prosody by analyzing the perception and processing of intonation in questions and statements in L2 Spanish. A total of 225 adult L2 Spanish learners (L1 English) from the Northeastern United States completed a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task in which they listened to four utterance types and categorized them as either questions or statements. We used Bayesian multilevel regression and Drift Diffusion modeling to analyze the 2AFC data as a function of proficiency level and empathy scores for each utterance type. We show that learner response accuracy and sensitivity to intonation is positively correlated with proficiency, and this association is affected by individual empathy levels in both response accuracy and sentence processing. Higher empathic individuals, in comparison with lower empathic individuals, appear to be more sensitive to intonation cues in the process of forming sound-meaning associations, though increased sensitivity does not necessarily imply increased processing speed. The results motivate the inclusion of measures of pragmatic skill, such as empathy, to better account for intonational meaning processing and sentence comprehension in second language acquisition.

This study examined students’ learning adjustments in an introductory statistics class in response to the unexpected challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show significant correlations in grades, page views, and on-time assignment submissions (OTAS) suggesting that the in-person and online learning modalities were comparable. The distributions of student learning activities were narrowly clustered around the means with smaller standard deviations recorded during the online sessions. Grades were positively correlated with OTAS for the in-person classes. For online classes using synchronous screen sharing, grades were positively associated with attendance; however, they were negatively influenced by the numbers of page views in the learning management system. The relations between attendance and achievement might be influenced by the complexity of content material. Students benefited more from attending classes in technical topics such as inferential statistics compared to descriptive statistics. It appears that participating in synchronous classes was a more effective means of learning inferential statistics than merely reviewing the instructor’s notes. In contrast, no correlation between grades and attendance was observed for in-person learning sessions covering descriptive statistics. There were no differences in learning adjustments between male and female students and both showed substantial resilience in adapting to the changes. Students unanimously looked forward to returning to campus. This study suggests it is the students’ individual learning approaches and behaviors that have a greater impact on their learning outcomes than the modality in which they are taught. Course designs and assignment formats might be factors that influenced students’ attendance and OTAS.