Browsing by Author "Halverson, Kelly Kathryn"
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Item Executive Functioning in Struggling Readers: The NIH Examiner(2020-05) Halverson, Kelly Kathryn; Cirino, Paul T.; Derrick, Jaye L.; Medina, Luis D.Executive functioning (EF) is an important domain general control process implicated in the development of successful reading. While a number of previous studies have investigated the role of EF in children with reading difficulties (RD), results have been mixed due to lack of clarity within the domain and varied assessment methods. In the present study, we investigated the role of EF in a large group (n = 355) of 4th, 5th and 6th grade students with RD. To characterize EF, we utilized the NIH Executive Abilities: Measures and Instruments for Neurobehavioral Evaluation and Research (NIH EXAMINER), a novel, short yet comprehensive, and free assessment. We investigated how the broad domain of EF is related to reading on three levels: word reading, reading fluency and reading comprehension, and for the latter, considered the impact of inference making. Results indicated relations of EF to reading consistent with prior work (average r = .26) with this novel measure. Multivariate multiple regression analyses compared the contribution of EF across all reading outcomes in a single model. Results revealed an overall effect of EF on reading, p < 0.001, and significant differences between fluency and comprehension, p < 0.001, and between decoding and comprehension, p = 0.014, but not between fluency and decoding, p = 0.062. The relation of EF to reading comprehension was fully mediated by inference making, and both indirect effects (short and long textual distance) were significant, although they were not significantly different from each other. Results may aid the development of specific reading interventions which consider the important and unique structure and role of EF in struggling readers.Item Impact of Acculturation on Math Achievement in Community College Students(2022-06-28) Halverson, Kelly Kathryn; Cirino, Paul T.; Bick, Johanna R.; Medina, Luis D.; McKinney, LyleWe investigated the potential moderating role of cultural adoption and cultural maintenance on the WM-math relation in a diverse group of CC students (n = 94). We expected that higher levels of adoption and maintenance would decrease WM load (via cognitive load) and aid math performance. At higher levels of acculturation, the WM-math relation was hypothesized approximate meta-analytic findings. Alternatively, at low levels of acculturation, the WM-math correlation was anticipated to be attenuated due to the added variability in culture and negative impact low acculturation levels have on WM, by increasing cognitive load. Within our sample (N = 94), WM-math correlations averaged r = .38 (similar to prior work), but acculturation did not significantly relate to math performance. Neither cultural adoption (computations: F=1.68, p =.199; word problems: F=.42, p =.521) nor cultural maintenance (computations: F=.83, p = .364; word problems: F=.36, p = .550) moderated the WM-math relations. In this context, developing individualized interventions would not appear to be an efficient use of resources. Instead, institutions (e.g., schools, city/federal government) may benefit from redoubling their efforts in providing academic and non-academic resources and supports to provide a more equitable educational experience to all students and offer the best possibility at future success. Post-hoc analyses, however, revealed that the cultural adoption-math relationship varied across different levels of vocabulary and math abilities, although not in the direction anticipated. Findings suggest complex relationships between WM, acculturation, and math such that acculturation does impact math performance when either vocabulary or math abilities are strong. This suggests additional individual and/or population characteristics should be explored more thoroughly (SES, discrimination, culture of origin) to further elucidate these complex relations.