Focus intervention and monitoring on abilities with the strongest coupling strengths, not only on outcomes below a desired threshold¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The authors recommend that "to facilitate early detection and possibly even effective intervention, it may pay off to focus on abilities that have the strongest coupling strengths rather than solely on outcomes that are currently below some desirable threshold." This follows from their finding that baseline scores in one domain predict gains in the other, and from related dynamic-modeling work they cite. It implies monitoring coupled supporting abilities (e.g., vocabulary as a leading indicator of reading comprehension) rather than only end-goal outcomes.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Longitudinal dynamic models of multiple abilities to identify which abilities have the strongest coupling strengths in a given population

Constraints¶

• The recommendation is an authors' interpretation in the Discussion, illustrated by cited work (Quinn et al., 2015; Ferrer et al., 2010), not a tested intervention in this study

Target Learners¶

• children and adolescents with reading or developmental difficulties

Target Learning Goals¶

• early detection of developmental challenges and selection of intervention targets

Affordances¶

• Mutualism Model Cognitive Development

Claims¶

• Higher starting scores in vocabulary predicted greater gains in matrix reasoning and vice versa (bidirectional positive coupling) [+M]
• The mutualism model provides the best account of longitudinal changes in vocabulary and matrix reasoning, with by far the highest normalized model-selection probability [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Kievit, R. A., Lindenberger, U., Goodyer, I. M., Jones, P. B., Fonagy, P., Bullmore, E. T., the Neuroscience in Psychiatry Network, & Dolan, R. J. (2017). Mutualistic Coupling Between Vocabulary and Reasoning Supports Cognitive Development During Late Adolescence and Early Adulthood. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617710785