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Evidence Base

Assessing reading and online research comprehension: Do difficulties in attention and executive function matter?

Keywords

Digital literacy Online research and comprehension Reading comprehension Executive function Attention difficulties

Publication details

DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2021.101985
Issued: 2021
Language: English
Volume: 87
Start Page: 101985
End Page: 101985
Editors:
Authors: Kanniainen L.; Kiili C.; Tolvanen A.; Aro M.; Anmarkrud Ø.; Leppänen P.
Type: Journal article
Journal: Learning and Individual Differences
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Topics: Learning; Literacy and skills
Sample: 426 sixth-grade students (207 girls and 219 boys) from eight elementary schools in Central Finland.
Implications For Educators About: Other

Abstract

This study evaluated the relation between sixth graders' (N = 426) teacher-rated difficulties in attention and executive function (EF) and their comprehension skills. Reading comprehension was assessed with a multiple-choice task and online research and comprehension (ORC) with a problem-solving task. The analyses were controlled for gender, reading fluency and nonverbal reasoning. To investigate differences in students' performance between the tasks, comprehension skills in the multiple-choice task were also controlled for in the ORC task. Structural equation models showed that teacher-rated attention and EF difficulties were related to students' performance more in the problem-solving task than in the multiple-choice task. After controlling for all the background variables, these difficulties explained 9% of the variance of ORC performance in girls and 4% in boys. These results indicate that for students with attention and EF difficulties the ORC task was more challenging than the reading comprehension task.

Outcome

Online research and comprehension is more challenging than reading comprehension for students with attention and executive function difficulties. "Difficulties in attention and executive function affected students' online research performance. After controlling for individual differences, such difficulties did not affect reading comprehension. The effect of difficulties on online research performance was different for girls and boys."

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