Kelly B . Cartwright | University of North Carolina at Charlotte (original) (raw)

Papers by Kelly B . Cartwright

The Reading Teacher, Jun 27, 2019

Scientific Studies of Reading, Jun 5, 2022

Reading Research Quarterly, Sep 2, 2019

Reading comprehension is an incredibly complex, purposeful activity that involves simultaneous or... more Reading comprehension is an incredibly complex, purposeful activity that involves simultaneous orchestration and integration of multiple processes. However, dominant perspectives suggest that two clusters of skills, word reading and language comprehension, account for successful reading. Such two-factor models are problematic because they do not easily account for complexities in reading comprehension processes or for contributions to reading comprehension of other individual difference variables related to the purposeful nature of reading, such as executive functions (EFs) and intrinsic motivation. Further, simple models may lead to oversimplification of research questions, curricula, and instructional practices, causing researchers and educators to miss important contributors to reading comprehension necessary for students to develop into skilled readers. In this study, the authors assessed the unique contributions of EFs, both domain-general and reading-specific, and cognitive intrinsic motivation (i.e., the desire to engage in effortful cognitive activities) to reading comprehension in 122 university students beyond language comprehension and word-reading skills. Findings confirm unique contributions of cognitive intrinsic motivation and reading-specific EF to students' reading comprehension beyond established predictors and domain-general EFs. Findings also suggest complexities, such as impacts of language comprehension on word reading, as well as impacts of cognitive intrinsic motivation on both language and reading comprehension, that should be considered in theory and practice. Finally, because reading-specific EF contributed to reading comprehension directly and indirectly beyond controls, these findings underscore the importance of applying knowledge of EF to specific reading processes to better support students who struggle to understand text. R eading comprehension underlies positive life outcomes, such as health, educational attainment, and employment status (DeWalt,

Journal of Research in Reading, Jan 19, 2017

Good and poor comprehenders exhibit different profiles of cognitive abilities, despite comparable... more Good and poor comprehenders exhibit different profiles of cognitive abilities, despite comparable decoding skills. Recent work suggests that executive functions, particularly cognitive flexibility, may underlie poor comprehenders' difficulties in childhood and adulthood. However, metalinguistic skills that enable readers to reflect on various aspects of print may also contribute to poor comprehenders' difficulties. We examined metalinguistic abilities (graphophonemic and syntactic) and cognitive flexibility (graphophonological-semantic and syntactic-semantic) in 24 good and 24 poor adult comprehenders, matched on age-appropriate non-word decoding skill and general cognitive ability. Groups differed significantly on graphophonemic awareness, syntactic awareness, and both measures of cognitive flexibility after verbal ability and word identification were controlled. Differences in cognitive flexibility remained significant even when relevant metacognitive skills were controlled. These data demonstrate additional cognitive differences between good and poor comprehenders that can inform theory and practice.

Contemporary Educational Psychology, Apr 1, 2020

Cognitive Development, Oct 1, 2020

Abstract This study assessed the impact of a teacher-delivered, small-group reading-specific exec... more Abstract This study assessed the impact of a teacher-delivered, small-group reading-specific executive function (EF) intervention on reading performance in a sample of 57 teacher-identified struggling readers, ranging in age from 7;6 to 12;3 (Mage = 9;10) in 2nd to 5th grades at a public elementary school in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Near-transfer effects of EF interventions are more common than far-transfer to academic skills. Thus, we assessed near- and far-transfer effects for intervention (n = 29) and control (n = 28) children. The reading-specific EF intervention produced medium to large effects on reading-specific and domain-general EF skills as well as on researcher-administered and school-administered reading comprehension measures, even after grade level (and thus reading teacher), verbal ability, children’s age, and respective pretest scores were controlled. These findings underscore the importance of translational work that takes researcher-tested interventions into real-world contexts to support children’s development. Implications of findings for practice are discussed.

The Reading Teacher, Apr 1, 2006

The Reading Teacher, Jun 23, 2023

Although much is known about supporting preschoolers' alphabet knowledge, less is known about... more Although much is known about supporting preschoolers' alphabet knowledge, less is known about instructional moves that support preschoolers' narrative comprehension or how preschoolers' developing cognitive skills may support their narrative comprehension development. This school‐university partnership project examined relations of preschoolers' Theory of Mind (i.e., social understanding) and executive function skills to narrative comprehension development in three instructional contexts: inferential, interactive vocabulary‐focused, and typical instruction in preschool classrooms. Structured, inferential comprehension instruction emerged as a promising practice that may support preschoolers' narrative comprehension development. We observed that children who received structured inferential comprehension instruction showed greater responsiveness to the instruction if they were high on cognitive flexibility or Theory of Mind, suggesting that these preschool cognitive skills may be important for developing comprehension. The structured, inferential comprehension intervention is described, as are applications to classroom practice.

Journal of Adult Development, Mar 26, 2009

Three studies investigated the psychometric properties of the complex postformal thought (PFT) qu... more Three studies investigated the psychometric properties of the complex postformal thought (PFT) questionnaire (Sinnott, unpublished scale, 1998; Sinnott and Johnson 1997), which is a measure of adult cognitive development. The scale was found to be moderately reliable (a = .63). To assess construct validity, a comparison of participants' performance on the PFT scale to their performance on the Need for Cognition scale was conducted, which indicated the PFT scale is valid measure of complex thought. Factor analysis reduced the scale to three factors, which correspond to important components of PFT: Multiple Elements, Subjective Choice, and Underlying Complexities. Implications for understanding the nature of adult cognitive development and the usefulness of this new measure for research in this area are discussed.

Journal of Adult Development, Dec 16, 2009

Theories of postformal thought (PFT) suggest that cognitive development is enhanced by social int... more Theories of postformal thought (PFT) suggest that cognitive development is enhanced by social interactions where differences must be negotiated. Friendships provide the potential for complex social interactions and are an ideal context in which to explore the relation between cognitive development and the negotiation of social differences. The present research is the first to directly explore the relation between close cross-category friendships and level of postformal cognitive reasoning among college students. Participants from two universities completed questionnaires assessing PFT and friendship characteristics. Results indicate that individuals reported more same-category versus cross-category friendships. This was true for sex, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and age. In addition, individuals high in PFT had more social category differences in their existing close friendships than individuals low in PFT.

Early Education and Development, 2012

Research Findings: Executive function begins to develop in infancy and involves an array of proce... more Research Findings: Executive function begins to develop in infancy and involves an array of processes, such as attention, inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, which provide the means by which individuals control their own behavior, work toward goals, and manage complex cognitive processes. Thus, executive function plays a critical role in the development of academic skills such as reading. This article describes the development of executive function in young children, describes the brain structures and changes associated with that development, and then reviews recent research on the critical role of executive function in early reading development and education. Practice or Policy: Because executive function and its associated brain developments parallel reading acquisition, work in executive function has profound implications for fostering the successful development of reading skills, including prereading skills, word reading, and reading comprehension. Instruction that helps children learn to manage the multiple features of spoken and printed language will help ensure that children develop the reading-specific executive functions that will enable them to manage the complexities of reading processes throughout their lives. Almost three decades ago, Royer (1983, p. 205) noted, ''Reading is the natural interface between developmental and educational psychology.'' Indeed, Royer was ahead of his time because in recent years the developmental sciences have blossomed, offering new ways to view children's learning with important implications for education in general (Siegler, 2000; Sternberg & Lyon, 2002; Twardosz, 2007) and for reading education in particular (Katzir & Paré-Blagoev, 2006). Education scholars have begun to look to the new frontier of cognitive neuroscience to enrich and inform their understanding of learning (Melzer, 2007) and reading processes (Cartwright, 2008). However, according to a recent report from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, the curricula of teacher preparation programs have been hard-pressed to keep pace with the rapid advances in the developmental sciences (Leibbrand & Watson, 2010). This special issue thus addresses a critical need by assisting early child educators in understanding and applying new research in neuroscience to educational practice. In this paper I describe an area of research in cognitive neuroscience that focuses on executive function (EF): ''a collection of interrelated processes responsible for purposeful, goal-directed behavior,'' such

Journal of Literacy Research, Jun 1, 2007

Reading is complex and requires that individuals process many types of information concurrently. ... more Reading is complex and requires that individuals process many types of information concurrently. Contemporary perspectives on cognitive development focus on the ability to process cognitively complex stimuli, indicate cognitive development is domain-specific, and suggest cognitive development occurs across the lifespan. Yet little work has examined reading-specific cognitive developmental variation and its contribution to skilled reading. This study investigated the contribution of a measure of reading-specific cognitive development, graphophonological-semantic flexibility (the ability to process concurrently phonological and semantic information associated with print), to reading comprehension in college students. Graphophonological-semantic flexibility made a unique contribution to adults' reading comprehension over phonological and semantic processing assessed independently, even when general cognitive ability was controlled. Implications for the simple view of reading are discussed. Over two decades ago, Royer (1983, p. 205) asserted that reading is "the natural interface between developmental and educational psychology." Naturally, research in the development of individuals' thinking has the capacity to inform understanding of skilled reading in both children and adults. Yet the fields of educational and developmental psychology remain largely independent (Sternberg,

Clinical practice in pediatric psychology, Dec 1, 2022

Reading Research Quarterly, Mar 2, 2021

ABSTRACTThe simple view of reading describes reading as the product of decoding (D) and listening... more ABSTRACTThe simple view of reading describes reading as the product of decoding (D) and listening comprehension (LC). However, the simple view of reading has been challenged, and evidence has proved it to be too simple to explain the complexities of reading comprehension in the elementary school years. Hypotheses have been advanced that there are cognitive‐linguistic factors that underlie the common variance between D and LC, which are malleable, although there is no clarity at this point regarding what these are. We propose that one such group of malleable cognitive factors is executive function (EF) skills. Further, we posit that EF skills play equally strong roles in explaining reading comprehension variance in emergent bilinguals and English monolinguals. We used multigroup structural equation modeling to determine the contribution of these constructs (D, LC, and EF) to reading comprehension in 425 emergent bilinguals and 302 English monolinguals in grades 2–4. The shared variance between D and LC was explained by direct and indirect effects in the models tested, with strong indirect effects for the EFs of cognitive flexibility and working memory through D and LC, respectively, for both language groups. The indirect effect of cognitive flexibility through LC on reading comprehension was considerably larger for emergent bilinguals than for English monolinguals. Considerations for a more nuanced view of the simple view of reading and its implications for practice are discussed.

Reading comprehension plays an integral role in adults’ daily lives and is thus central to adults... more Reading comprehension plays an integral role in adults’ daily lives and is thus central to adults’ positive life outcomes. Yet, millions of American adults lack the requisite reading skills necessary for basic literacy. Although research on adult literacy has traditionally focused on cognitive aspects of reading processes, the field has recently turned attention to the important role of positive, subjective factors such as motivation, in adults’ reading comprehension development. Expert adult readers read often, with interest, and are highly motivated, providing models of optimal life outcomes that point to potential areas of intervention for adults with low literacy.

Mind, Brain, and Education, Feb 14, 2020

Executive function (EF) contributes significantly to reading comprehension across the lifespan. E... more Executive function (EF) contributes significantly to reading comprehension across the lifespan. Emerging research indicates domain-specific assessments of EF are better suited for assessment and intervention in academic contexts. For example, graphophonological-semantic cognitive flexibility (GSF), the ability to flexibly switch between the graphophonological and semantic components of printed words, contributes uniquely to reading comprehension across the lifespan, and GSF training improves children's reading comprehension. This study compared the original GSF measure, which is problematic for use in schools due to its subjectively interpreted explicit explanation component, to an abbreviated implicit task that is better suited for assessment of GSF in practical contexts in 68 first and second grade students. Implicit and explicit GSF contributed uniquely to reading comprehension concurrently and longitudinally when children (n = 31) were in third and fourth grades, beyond verbal ability, decoding ability, and matrix reasoning.

... The Impact of Flexibility on Vocabulary and Comprehension Development 257 Sheri R. Parris and... more ... The Impact of Flexibility on Vocabulary and Comprehension Development 257 Sheri R. Parris and Cathy Collins Block 13. ... Using Technology to Teach Flexibility through Peer Discussion 320 Nicola Yuill, Lucinda Kerawalla, Darren Pearce, Rose Luckin, and Amanda Harris 16. ...