Relations Between Isolated Writing Skills, Executive Functions, Working Memory, and College Students' Production of Connected Text

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore potential relations between isolated writing skills, executive functions, working memory, and connected text production. The goal was to integrate concepts and measures from diverse perspectives to examine these relationships. Sixty-three students enrolled in introductory psychology completed a battery of measures, and relationships among measures were examined to test hypothesized relationships. Isolated writing skills, executive functions, and working memory measures predicted scores on a measure of unsupported production of connected text and accounted for 15 percent of the variance in scores on the connected text production measure. The contribution of executive function to written expression did not differ significantly from zero, and the manipulation designed to examine the role of executive function in written expression by reducing the organizational demands of the writing task did not have its predicted effect. Post hoc analyses suggested that flaws in the study's design may have accounted for the failure to find support for two of the three original hypotheses. Other possible interpretations for the findings and implications for future research and school psychology practice were discussed.

Description

Keywords

writing, executive functions, working memory

Citation

Degree

PhD

Discipline

Psychology

Collections