Contributions of working memory and sustained attention to children’s reading achievement: A commonality analysis approach

We used commonality analysis to explore the unique and overlapping contributions of two closely related executive functions, working memory and sustained attention, to the prediction of children’s reading achievement, over and above age and verbal IQ. Children aged 8–10 years (N = 104) completed measures of working memory capacity, sustained attention capacity, verbal IQ and reading achievement (operationalised as word reading and reading comprehension). We found that working memory capacity explained relatively more unique variance in word reading than in reading comprehension. Working memory capacity also predicted reading achievement through shared variance. In contrast, the capacity to sustain attention did not explain any substantial unique variance in either word reading or reading comprehension. The variance sustained attention capacity explained in reading achievement, albeit small in magnitude, was almost completely from overlapping variance with other predictors. These findings highlight the importance of understanding how executive function components differentially relate to aspects of reading achievement and provide initial evidence that any meaningful contribution sustained attention capacity makes to reading achievement is via shared variance.