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Reading comprehension is a complex cognitive skill that enables the development of a representation of the meaning of a text, promoting information acquisition and contributing to educational, social, and occupational development. Decoding plays an important role in acquiring this skill, and executive functions have been considered to contribute to it. However, studies generally do not take into account the contribution of the different executive processes (working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility) when considered together. This study analyzed the joint and unique contribution of executive functions to reading comprehension, controlling for their decoding level, in Spanish-speaking children aged 7 to 9 years, in the second and third grades of primary school. It was found that verbal working memory and perceptual inhibition make a significant contribution to reading comprehension, beyond their level of decoding. The results show the importance of executive functions for reading performance, especially during a stage when reading comprehension is in full development, and contribute to clarifying its role during the first years of primary school.
Vernucci et al. (Wed,) studied this question.