What’s the best way to characterize the relationship between working memory and achievement?: An initial examination of competing theories.

Abstract

Although studies have demonstrated a relationship between working memory and achievement in math and reading, it is still unclear why working memory might be related to these abilities. In the present article, we examined the viability of several possible theories in 2 separate analyses of math and reading. In each case, we contrasted the predictions of a cognitive filter model, a transactional model, and a positive manifold model using data from the 2011 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten (ECLS-K). Results of path analyses in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework indicated an excellent fit for the transactional model, while a poor fit was shown for the other 2 models for both math and reading. Findings across these analyses suggested that working memory and achievement interact in a reciprocal, recursive manner over time. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for theory, practice, and future research.

Reciprocal associations between executive function and academic achievement: A conceptual replication of Schmitt et al. (2017)

“…The inconsistent pattern of findings in our replication study mimic the inconsistencies that are found in the EF and academic skills literature during early childhood. In addition to the results reported by Schmitt et al (2017), several recent studies have also found evidence of the co-development of EF and academic achievement (e.g., Cameron et al, 2019;McKinnon & Blair, 2019;Meixner et al, 2019;Miller-Cotto & Byrnes, 2020;Welsh et al, 2010). However, others (Fuhs et al, 2014;Willoughby et al, 2019), including the current replication have demonstrated that EF prospectively predicts academic skills, which is inconsistent with the theory of mutualism between cognitive and academic skills across early development (e.g., Peng & Kievit, 2020).…”

“…Recent work, however, has cast doubt on the causal links between early EF skills and children's academic development (e.g., Jacob & Parkinson, 2015). Longitudinal studies, for example, examining bidirectional links between EF skills and academic achievement have challenged the predominant unidirectional perspective of EF supporting academic skill development (e.g., Cameron, Kim, Duncan, Becker, & McClelland, 2019;Fuhs, Nesbitt, Farran, & Dong, 2014;McKinnon & Blair, 2019;Meixner, Warner, Lensing, Schiefele, & Elsner, 2019;Miller-Cotto & Byrnes, 2020;Welsh, Nix, Blair, Bierman, & Nelson, 2010). This work has leveraged the availability of multiple time-points of data to describe reciprocal relations between EF and achievement over time, testing whether these constructs co-develop or are directional in nature during the early years of schooling.…”

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

“…Running head: ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND COGNITION 8 Specifically, using cross-lagged modelling on a large data sample from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten (ECLS-K), Miller-Cotto and Byrnes (2019) found that working memory and reading/mathematics significantly predicted each other from the beginning of kindergarten through second grade. Schmitt, Geldhof, Purpura, Duncan, and McClelland (2017) Ferrer and colleagues (Ferrer et al, 2007;Ferrer, Shaywitz, Holahan, Marchione, & Shaywitz, 2010) Intervention effects.…”

Cognitive and academic skills in two developmental cohorts of different ability level: a mutualistic network perspective

“…Similar reciprocal effects, where the development of a given academic skill predicts growth in cognitive performance and vice-versa, have been reported between working memory and reading and maths (Miller-Cotto & Byrnes, 2019), IQ and reading (Ferrer et al, 2007(Ferrer et al, , 2010, nonverbal reasoning and vocabulary (Kievit et al, , 2019, and executive functions and maths (Schmitt et al, 2017). These examples suggest that difficulties in one domain may have downstream effects on other abilities, and challenge the use of analytic strategies in which cognitive deficits are uniquely modelled as predictors and academic skills as outcomes.…”