Cognitive flexibility is an
important executive function skill that prevents us from becoming stuck in a
rigid approach to solving a problem. Having cognitive flexibility allows us to
switch strategies to find the correct solution or to consider alternative
perspectives on a complicated situation (Diamond, 2013). Perhaps unsurprisingly
flexibility has been linked to school performance (Yeniad et al., 2013), but
little is known about the exact nature of this relationship.
Our research focuses on reading
development and so we have examined whether cognitive flexibility has any role
to play in early reading. As reading is a complex cognitive task that demands
the use of visual symbols relating to both sound and meaning, it seems possible
that cognitive flexibility may be required to coordinate all of this
information efficiently (Berninger & Nagy, 2008).
Children begin to develop cognitive
flexibility prior to learning to read around the ages of 3-5 years. Researchers
measure this using card sorting games where the sorting rules change and
children’s ability to adapt to the new rule reflects their flexibility. By 7-9
years of age, children show an increasing capacity to deal with complex sorting
rules including sorting according to several dimensions at one time in matrix
classification tasks.
Children with good cognitive flexibility
seem to be better at pre-reading skills like letter recognition and
letter-sound knowledge (Blair & Razza, 2007; Bierman et al., 2008),
however, the evidence in relation to reading itself is more mixed. Nevertheless,
an interesting line of research has been established by Cartwright (2002), who
argues that cognitive flexibility is particularly important for reading
comprehension because of the need to simultaneously decode the words and
understand the meaning of text.
Cartwright presented evidence for
this view by measuring the cognitive flexibility of English-speaking children between 2nd and 4th grade using a matrix classification
task and relating this to reading comprehension. In the first task, children
had to sort pictures of objects into a 2x2 matrix on the basis of visual features
(i.e. colour) or meaning (i.e. object
category). In the second task, written words rather than pictures had to be sorted
and the sorting criteria were more reading specific as they involved sound
(i.e. initial sound) and meaning (i.e. object category). Results showed that
both matrix classification tasks predicted reading comprehension over and above
the usual predictors like age and decoding skills. However, the
reading-specific matrix classification task involving written words was the
stronger predictor of reading comprehension.
Although these results seemed
very promising, we felt that there was a need to explore the findings further,
given that several other studies had failed to find a relation between
cognitive flexibility and reading. We also wanted to modify the matrix classification
task to keep the sorting criteria constant (i.e. sound and meaning) and to
compare general flexibility in sorting pictures versus reading-specific
flexibility in sorting written words (Fig. 1). We also wanted to investigate
how these two types of flexibility relate not only to reading comprehension but
also to single word reading.
Fig 1. Correct classification for the general and reading-specific matrix classification tasks (adapted from Cartwright (2012))
French children in second grade who were 7½
years old took part. This was a strong test of the relationship between
cognitive flexibility and reading. The initial phase of learning to read in
French is slightly easier than in English since French has a more consistent
relation between word spellings and sound; in other words, the regular
spellings of French may mean that less cognitive flexibility is needed for learning
to read in French than in English.
As it turned out, cognitive flexibility was
related to reading in French. Cognitive flexibility as measured by having to
sort simultaneously by sound and meaning predicted reading comprehension over
and above traditional predictors (e.g. decoding, word reading). Moreover,
cognitive flexibility also predicted single word reading over and above other
predictors such as decoding skill. In both cases, reading-specific flexibility in
sorting written words was more strongly related to reading than flexibility in
sorting pictures.
Finally, while more research is still needed,
the implications of our findings are that games and activities aimed at
improving cognitive flexibility may show benefits for early reading progress. Practice
at switching between key components of written words like sound and meaning may
improve children’s flexibility in relation to this information and enhance reading
comprehension. The benefits of these activities may not be restricted to
reading just as cognitive flexibility developed in other areas of the
curriculum may also feedback to reading.
References
Berninger, V. W., and Nagy, W. E.
(2008). “Flexibility in word reading: Multiple levels of representations,
complex mappings, partial similarities and cross-modal connections,” in
Literacy Processes: Cognitive Flexibility in Learning and Teaching, ed. K. B.
Cartwright (New York: The Guilford Press).
Bierman, K. L., Nix, R. L.,
Greenberg, M. T., Blair, C., and Domitrovich, C. E. (2008). Executive functions
and school readiness intervention: impact, moderation, and mediation in the
Head Start REDI program. Dev. Psychopathol. 20, 821–843. doi:
10.1017/S0954579408000394
Blair, C., and Razza, R. P.
(2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief
understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Child Dev.
78, 647–663. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01019.x
Cartwright, K. B. (2002).
Cognitive development and reading: the relation of reading-specific multiple
classification skill to reading comprehension in elementary school children. J.
Educ. Psychol. 94, 56–63. doi: 10.1037//0022-0663.94.1.56
Cartwright K. B. (2012). Insights from cognitive neuroscience: the importance of
executive function for early reading development and education. Early Educ.
Dev. 23 24–36
10.1080/10409289.2011.615025
Diamond, A. (2013).
Executive functions. Annu.
Rev. Psychol. 64, 135–168.
doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
Yeniad, N.,
Malda, M., Mesman, J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., and Pieper, S. (2013). Shifting
ability predicts math and reading performance in children: a meta-analytical
study. Learn. Individ. Differ. 23, 1–9. doi:
10.1016/j.lindif.2012.10.004
Academic Bio
Dr Lynne
Duncan is a senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Dundee.
Her research
focuses on language and reading development. Bilingual language and literacy is
a particular interest, as are developmental language disorders. This work has
entailed cross-linguistic and cross-cultural studies of children and adults in
collaboration with colleagues in other European countries.
The research presented here was carried out jointly with:
Professor Pascale Colé and Professor Agnès Blaye
Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, UMR-7290, Aix-Marseille
University, Marseille, France
Teach Your Child to Read Today!
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