Shifting is moderately to strongly associated with reading comprehension, with large associations when reading-specific shifting tasks are paired with literal comprehension measures¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · quant-synthesis r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across 14 studies, most showed moderate to strong shifting-reading comprehension links, with six studies reporting large associations. → Ting Zhou 2026 q2 i? Large associations were found particularly when the shifting task required higher-order conceptual or verbal switching and the comprehension measure focused on literal comprehension. → Ting Zhou 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Ting Zhou 2026¶

Ting Zhou, Thuy Anh Nguyen, Aprezo Pardodi Maba, Damon Thomas, Young-Suk Grace Kim, Elizabeth J. Edwards. (2026). Executive Functions and Reading in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10160-5

q2 · i? · quant-synthesis · r2

Qualitative synthesis of 14 shifting-reading comprehension studies: "Most studies showed moderate to strong links", with one exception reporting r = .15 using the general Multiple Classification Card Sorting Test and GORT; no pooled effect size is printed.

"Fourteen studies examined the relationship between shifting and reading comprehension. Most studies showed moderate to strong links, except one study reported a small association ( r=.15; Bock et al., 2018)"

Ting Zhou 2026 (2)¶

Ting Zhou, Thuy Anh Nguyen, Aprezo Pardodi Maba, Damon Thomas, Young-Suk Grace Kim, Elizabeth J. Edwards. (2026). Executive Functions and Reading in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10160-5

q2 · i? · quant-synthesis · r2

Pattern across six studies reporting large associations (Barber et al., 2020; Cartwright, 2002; Cartwright et al., 2010, 2019, 2020; Niedo et al., 2014): large effects occurred "particularly when the shifting task required higher-order conceptual or verbal switching" with literal comprehension measures.

"The large effects were found across a variety of shifting tasks and reading comprehension assessments, particularly when the shifting task required higher-order conceptual or verbal switching (i.e., reading-specific shifting task), and the measure of comprehension focused on literal comprehension (e.g., WRMT Passage Comprehension or WJ Passage Comprehension)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Shifting is generally moderately to strongly associated with word reading, with reading-specific shifting tasks most strongly linked to accuracy-based word reading assessments — related
• Inhibition shows moderate to large associations with reading comprehension in most studies, but the association depends on the inhibition task used — related