The Development of Academic Achievement and Cognitive Abilities: A Bidirectional Perspective

Abstract

Developing academic skills and cognitive abilities is critical for children's development. In this article, we review evidence from recent research on the bidirectional relations between academic achievement and cognitive abilities. Our findings suggest that (a) reading/mathematics and cognitive abilities (i.e., working memory, reasoning, and executive function) predict each other in development, (b) direct academic instruction positively affects the development of reasoning, and (c) such bidirectional relations between cognitive abilities and academic achievement seem weaker among children with disadvantages (e.g., those with special needs or low socioeconomic status). Together, these findings are in line with the theory of mutualism and the transactional model. They suggest that sustained and high‐quality schooling and education directly foster children's academic and cognitive development, and may indirectly affect academic and cognitive development by triggering cognitive‐academic bidirectionality. Developing academic skills and cognitive abilities is critical for children's development. In this article, we review evidence from recent research on the bidirectional relations between academic achievement and cognitive abilities. Our findings suggest that (a) reading/mathematics and cognitive abilities (i.e., working memory, reasoning, and executive function) predict each other in development, (b) direct academic instruction positively affects the development of reasoning, and (c) such bidirectional relations between cognitive abilities and academic achievement seem weaker among children with disadvantages (e.g., those with special needs or low socioeconomic status). Together, these findings are in line with the theory of mutualism and the transactional model. They suggest that sustained and high‐quality schooling and education directly foster children's academic and cognitive development, and may indirectly affect academic and cognitive development by triggering cognitive‐academic bidirectionality.

Lack of Theory Building and Testing Impedes Progress in The Factor and Network Literature

“…Network theories predict that a given variable at baseline (e.g., verbal intelligence or depression) should be related to changes in other variables over time (e.g., mathematical intelligence or anxiety), termed mutualistic coupling. Such predictions can be formalized via latent change score models and tested in data , Kievit, Hofman, Nation, et al, 2019Peng & Kievit, 2020).…”

The Cognitive Element Model of Reading Instruction

“…However, these classic cognitive theories mostly emphasize the unidirectional effects of cognition on learning. More recently, researchers have proposed a bidirectional theory of academic learning and cognition (Peng & Kievit, 2020), suggesting a mutual relation between cognition and academic learning and the interaction between cognition and environmental factors during development.…”

“…Bidirectional theory suggests that academic learning and cognition influence each other mutually from a developmental perspective (Peng & Kievit, 2020). On the one hand, in the early developmental stage, the accumulation and automatic retrieval of domain‐specific knowledge (e.g., decoding and comprehension strategies) is not well established.…”

Evolving Networks of Human Intelligence

“…This theory, mutualism, departs from the observation that many cognitive processes are fueled by positive reciprocal interactions. Van der Maas et al (2006), Peng and Kievit (2020), and Kievit (2020) review such mutualistic interactions, ranging from the reciprocal effects of motivation and performance to those of vocabulary and reading ability.…”