Cognitive Prediction of Reading, Math, and Attention: Shared and Unique Influences
Open accessAbstract
The current study tested a multiple-cognitive predictor model of word reading, math ability, and attention in a community-based sample of twins ages 8 to 16 years ( N = 636). The objective was to identify cognitive predictors unique to each skill domain as well as cognitive predictors shared among skills that could help explain their overlap and thus help illuminate the basis for comorbidity of related disorders (reading disability, math disability, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Results indicated that processing speed contributes to the overlap between reading and attention as well as math and attention, whereas verbal comprehension contributes to the overlap between reading and math. There was no evidence that executive functioning skills help account for covariation among these skill domains. Instead, specific executive functions differentially related to certain outcomes (i.e., working memory to math and inhibition to attention). We explored whether the model varied in younger versus older children and found only minor differences. Results are interpreted within the context of the multiple deficit framework for neurodevelopmental disorders.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Comorbidity amongst math disorder, reading disorder, and ADHD has been associated with low processing speed.
“comorbidity amongst MD, RD, and ADHD has also been associated with low PS, and the relationships between these deficits continue to be explored20,40–44.”
From Diagnostic Associations of Processing Speed in a Transdiagnostic, Pediatric Sample (2020) · cites this paper as [44]
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports that weak processing speed predicted reading, math, and attention outcomes and helped explain the reading–attention and math–attention overlaps. It also says verbal-conceptual skills, rather than processing speed, explained the reading–math relationship. Thus the paper supports an association with parts of the comorbidity pattern, but not processing speed as an explanation for overlap among all three disorders. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Rapid “automatized” naming (R.A.N.): Dyslexia differentiated from other learning disabilities
Denckla, M. B., & Rudel, R. G. (1976) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(76)90075-0 · Cited by 1,457 · see citing works
From single to multiple deficit models of developmental disorders
PENNINGTON, B. (2006) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2006.04.008 · Cited by 1,167 · see citing works
Self-citationRaghubar, K. P., Barnes, M. A., & Hecht, S. A. (2010) · Learning and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2009.10.005 · Cited by 975 · see citing works
Willcutt, E. G., Pennington, B. F., Olson, R. K., Chhabildas, N., & Hulslander, J. (2005) · Developmental Neuropsychology · doi:10.1207/s15326942dn2701_3 · Cited by 612 · see citing works
Self-citationBarkley, R. A. (1997) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037//0033-2909.121.1.65 · Cited by 580 · see citing works
Willcutt, E. G., Pennington, B. F., Boada, R., Ogline, J. S., Tunick, R. A., Chhabildas, N. A., & Olson, R. K. (2001) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.110.1.157 · Cited by 451 · see citing works
Self-citationComorbidity of learning disorders: prevalence and familial transmission
Landerl, K., & Moll, K. (2010) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02164.x · Cited by 435 · see citing works
Neuropsychological profiles of adolescents with ADHD: effects of reading difficulties and gender
Rucklidge, J. J., & Tannock, R. (2002) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00227 · Cited by 426 · cited 17× · see citing works
“Specifically, we allowed VC, PA, PS, and NS to predict reading; VC, PO, VWM, and PS to predict math; and VC, PO, PS, and Inhibition to predict attention.”
InfluentialWillcutt, E. G., Betjemann, R. S., McGrath, L. M., Chhabildas, N. A., Olson, R. K., DeFries, J. C., & Pennington, B. F. (2010) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2010.06.009 · Cited by 354 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Willcutt et al. (2010) used a Cholesky decomposition analysis in the CLDRC twin sample to estimate the shared and independent genetic influences on reading, inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and PS and NS.”
Self-citationWillcutt, E. G., Petrill, S. A., Wu, S., Boada, R., DeFries, J. C., Olson, R. K., & Pennington, B. F. (2013) · Journal of Learning Disabilities · doi:10.1177/0022219413477476 · Cited by 343 · see citing works
Self-citationWorking memory deficit in children with mathematical difficulties: A general or specific deficit?
Andersson, U., & Lyxell, B. (2007) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2006.10.001 · Cited by 274 · cited 1× · see citing works
“…some previous studies have reported that individuals with MD have weaknesses in PA (Geary et al., 2007), WM (Passolunghi & Cornoldi, 2008; Raghubar, Barnes, & Hecht, 2010), set shifting (van der Sluis, de Jong, & van der Leij, 2004), and PS and NS (Andersson & Lyxell, 2007; Geary et al., 2007).”
Moll, K., Göbel, S. M., Gooch, D., Landerl, K., & Snowling, M. J. (2016) · Journal of Learning Disabilities · doi:10.1177/0022219414547221 · Cited by 208 · see citing works
Intraindividual Variability in ADHD and Its Implications for Research of Causal Links
Kuntsi, J., & Klein, C. (2011) · Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences · doi:10.1007/7854_2011_145 · Cited by 138 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Deficits in PS (Shanahan et al., 2006; Willcutt et al., 2005), NS (Rucklidge & Tannock, 2002; Shanahan et al., 2006; Willcutt et al., 2005), and reaction time variability (Kuntsi & Klein, 2012) have also been reported.”
Mathematical learning disorder in school-age children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Capano, L., Minden, D., Chen, S. X., Schachar, R. J., & Ickowicz, A. (2008) · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/070674370805300609 · Cited by 114 · cited 6× · see citing works
“Twin studies have shown a significant genetic association between RD and ADHD, particularly between single word reading and the inattentive symptom dimension (Willcutt, Pennington, Olson, & DeFries, 2007).”
InfluentialPennington, B. F., Willcutt, E., & Rhee, S. H. (2005) · Advances in Child Development and Behavior · doi:10.1016/s0065-2407(05)80010-2 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 41
- Archibald LM Cardy JO Joanisse MF Ansari D 2013 Language, reading, and math learning profiles in an epidemiological sample of school age children Plos One 8 10 e77463 24155959 PMC3796500
- Badian NA 1999 Persistent arithmetic, reading, or arithmetic and reading disability Annals of Dyslexia 49 1 43 70
- Bishop DVM Adams C 1990 A prospective study of the relationship between specific language impairment, phonological disorders and reading retardation Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry 31 7 1027 1050 2289942
- Boada R Pennington BF 2006 Deficient implicit phonological representations in children with dyslexia Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 95 3 153 193 16887140
- Boetsch EA 1996 A longitudinal study of the relationship between dyslexia and socioemotional functioning in young children Unpublished doctoral dissertation University of Denver
- Caravolas M Volin J Hulme C 2005 Phoneme awareness is a key component of alphabetic literacy skills in consistent and inconsistent orthographies: evidence from Czech and English children J Exp Child Psychol 92 2 107 139 16038927
- Catts HW Gillispie M Leonard LB Kail RV Miller CA 2002 The role of speed of processing, rapid naming, and phonological awareness in reading achievement J Learn Disabil 35 6 509 524 15493249
- Christopher ME Miyake A Keenan JM Pennington B DeFries JC Wadsworth SJ Olson RK 2012 Predicting word reading and comprehension with executive function and speed measures across development: A latent variable analysis Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 141 3 470 22352396 PMC3360115
- Cirino PT Fuchs LS Elias JT Powell SR Schumacher RF 2015 Cognitive and mathematical profiles for different forms of learning difficulties Journal of Learning Disabilities 48 156 175 23851137 PMC4065636
- DeFries JC Filipek PA Fulker DW Olson RK Pennington BF Smith SD Wise BW 1997 Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center Learning Disability Quarterly 7–8 19
- Dennis M 2000 Developmental plasticity in children: the role of biological risk, development, time, and reserve Journal of communication disorders 33 4 321 332 11001159
- Ebejer JL Coventry WL Byrne B Willcutt EG Olson RK Corley R Samuelsson S 2010 Genetic and environmental influences on inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and reading: Kindergarten to grade 2 Scientific Studies of Reading 14 4 293 316 20823940 PMC2930267
- Gayan J Olson RK 2001 Genetic and environmental influences on orthographic and phonological skills in children with reading disabilities Developmental Neuropsychology 20 2 483 507 11892949
- Geary DC Hoard MK Byrd-Craven J Nugent L Numtee C 2007 Cognitive mechanisms underlying achievement deficits in children with mathematical learning disability Child development 78 4 1343 1359 17650142 PMC4439199
- Greven CU Kovas Y Willcutt EG Petrill SA Plomin R 2014 Evidence for shared genetic risk between ADHD symptoms and reduced mathematics ability: a twin study Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 55 1 39 48 23731013 PMC3865138
- Hart SA Petrill SA Thompson LA Plomin R 2009 The ABCs of math: A genetic analysis of mathematics and its links with reading ability and general cognitive ability Journal of educational psychology 101 2 388 20157630 PMC2821062
- Hart SA Petrill SA Willcutt E Thompson LA Schatschneider C Deater-Deckard K Cutting LE 2010 Exploring how symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are related to reading and mathematics performance general genes, general environments Psychological Science 21 11 1708 1715 20966487 PMC3708699
- Hulslander J Olson RK Willcutt EG Wadsworth SJ 2010 Longitudinal stability of reading-related skills and their prediction of reading development Scientific Studies of Reading 14 2 111 136 20563241 PMC2885806
- Kline RB 2005 Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling 2 New York Guilford Press
- Kovas Y Haworth C Harlaar N Petrill SA Dale PS Plomin R 2007 Overlap and specificity of genetic and environmental influences on mathematics and reading disability in 10-year-old twins Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 48 9 914 922 17714376 PMC2694440
- Kuntsi J Stevenson J Oosterlaan J Sonuga-Barke EJ 2001 Test-retest reliability of a new delay aversion task and executive function measures British Journal of Developmental Psychology 19 3 339 348
- Light JG DeFries JC 1995 Comorbidity of Reading and Mathematics Disabilities Genetic and Environmental Etiologies Journal of Learning Disabilities 28 2 96 106 7884303
- McGrath LM Pennington BF Shanahan MA Santerre-Lemmon LE Barnard HD Willcutt EG Olson RK 2011 A multiple deficit model of reading disability and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Searching for shared cognitive deficits Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 52 5 547 557 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02346.x 21126246 PMC3079018 · DOI · Paper page
- Olson RK Wise B Connors F Rack J Fulker D 1989 Specific deficits in component reading and language skills: Genetic and environmental influences Journal of Learning Disabilities 22 339 348 2738467
- Passolunghi MC Cornoldi C 2008 Working memory failures in children with arithmetical difficulties Child Neuropsychology 14 5 387 400 18608224
- Penke L Maniega SM Murray C Gow AJ Hernández MCV Clayden JD Deary IJ 2010 A general factor of brain white matter integrity predicts information processing speed in healthy older people The Journal of Neuroscience 30 22 7569 7574 20519531 PMC6632368
- Pennington BF Santerre–Lemmon L Rosenberg J MacDonald B Boada R Friend A Willcutt EG 2012 Individual prediction of dyslexia by single versus multiple deficit models Journal of abnormal psychology 121 1 212 224 22022952 PMC3270218
- Plomin R Kovas Y 2005 Generalist genes and learning disabilities Psychological Bulletin 131 4 592 16060804
- Polderman TJ Huizink AC Verhulst FC van Beijsterveldt CE Boomsma DI Bartels M 2011 A genetic study on attention problems and academic skills: Results of a longitudinal study in twins Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 20 1 22 21286366 PMC3024720
- Purvis KL Tannock R 2000 Phonological processing, not inhibitory control, differentiates ADHD and reading disability J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 39 4 485 494 10761351
- Rodgers B 1983 The identification and prevalence of specific reading retardation British Journal of Educational Psychology 53 3 369 373 6652037
- Rodriguez A Järvelin MR Obel C Taanila A Miettunen J Moilanen I Kotimaa AJ 2007 Do inattention and hyperactivity symptoms equal scholastic impairment? Evidence from three European cohorts BMC Public Health 7 1 327 17999767 PMC2216016
- Semrud-Clikeman M Guy K Griffin JD Hynd GW 2000 Rapid naming deficits in children and adolescents with reading disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Brain Lang 74 1 70 83 10924217
- Shanahan MA Pennington BF Yerys BE Scott A Boada R Willcutt EG DeFries JC 2006 Processing speed deficits in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and reading disability J Abnorm Child Psychol 34 5 585 602 16850284
- Stanovich KE 1986 Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy Reading Research Quarterly 21 4 360 406
- Swanson HL Mink J Bocian KM 1999 Cognitive processing deficits in poor readers with symptoms of reading disabilities and ADHD: More alike than different? Journal of Educational Psychology 91 2 321 333
- van der Sluis S de Jong PF van der Leij A 2004 Inhibition and shifting in children with learning deficits in arithmetic and reading Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 87 3 239 266 14972600
- Vellutino FR Fletcher JM Snowling MJ Scanlon DM 2004 Specific reading disability (dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45 1 2 40 14959801
- Willcutt EG Nigg JT Pennington BF Solanto MV Rohde LA Tannock R Lahey BB 2012 Validity of DSM-IV attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptom dimensions and subtypes Journal of abnormal psychology 121 4 991 22612200 PMC3622557
- Willcutt EG Pennington BF Olson RK DeFries JC 2007 Understanding comorbidity: A twin study of reading disability and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics 144 6 709 714 17440942
- Wolf M Bowers PG 1999 The double-deficit hypothesis for the developmental dyslexias Journal of educational psychology 91 3 415 438
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Annual Research Review: The transdiagnostic revolution in neurodevelopmental disorders
Astle, D. E., Holmes, J., Kievit, R., & Gathercole, S. E. (2022) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.13481 · Cited by 384 · see citing works
Lonergan, A., Doyle, C., Cassidy, C., MacSweeney Mahon, S., Roche, R. A. P., Boran, L., & Bramham, J. (2019) · Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/20445911.2019.1669609 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Child, A. E., Cirino, P. T., Fletcher, J. M., Willcutt, E. G., & Fuchs, L. S. (2019) · Journal of Learning Disabilities · doi:10.1177/0022219418775115 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Self-citationRoberts, G. J., Cho, E., Garwood, J. D., Goble, G. H., Robertson, T., & Hodges, A. (2020) · Educational Psychology Review · doi:10.1007/s10648-019-09485-1 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Diagnostic Associations of Processing Speed in a Transdiagnostic, Pediatric Sample
Kramer, E., Koo, B., Restrepo, A., Koyama, M., Neuhaus, R., Pugh, K., Andreotti, C., & Milham, M. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-66892-z · Cited by 28 · see citing works
- Authors
- Peterson, R. L., Boada, R., McGrath, L. M., Willcutt, E. G., Olson, R. K., & Pennington, B. F.
- Affiliations
- Children's Hospital Colorado (US)
- American University (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University of Denver (US)
- Corresponding author
- Peterson, Robin L.
- Venue
- Journal of Learning Disabilities
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-01-29
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 408-421
- ISSN
- 0022-2194 (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4780
- PMC
- PMC4967036
- OpenAlex
- W2341754086
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 19.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Learning Disabilities (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Digital Commons - DU (University of Denver) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD027802)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
- Keywords
- cognitive predictors, word reading, mathematical ability, attention, processing speed, verbal comprehension, executive function, working memory, inhibition, reading disorders, math disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, comorbidities, neurodevelopmental disorders, twins, children
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Attention, Child, Female, Humans, Inhibition, Psychological, Male, Mathematics, Memory, Short-Term, Reading, Comprehension, Executive Function, Neurodevelopmental Disorders
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
