ABSTRACT

We investigated whether the cool and hot executive functions (EFs) exhibited by kindergarteners could predict their academic achievement in the middle grades of elementary school. The study assessed the cool and hot EF of 48 Japanese kindergartners (M = 78.12 months) and then measured these same children’s academic achievement in language and mathematics between grades one to four. The study’s confirmative factor analysis indicated that early childhood EFs have both cool and hot factors. Its structural equation modeling revealed that although both cool and hot early childhood EFs can directly predict academic achievement in grade one, cool EFs had a greater predictive effect. It also found that cool and hot early childhood EFs had an indirect effect on academic achievement between grades two to four insofar as children’s academic achievement in grades two to four was predicted sequentially by their previous academic achievements.

摘要

我们调查了幼儿园儿童表现出的冷热执行功能 (EFs) 是否可以预测他们在小学初中的学业成绩。该研究评估了 48 名日本幼儿园儿童的冷热 EF（M= 78.12 个月），然后测量这些孩子在一到四年级之间在语言和数学方面的学业成绩。该研究的验证性因素分析表明，儿童早期 EF 既有冷因素又有热因素。其结构方程模型显示，虽然冷和热幼儿 EF 都可以直接预测一年级的学业成绩，但冷 EF 具有更大的预测效果。它还发现，冷热幼儿 EF 对二至四年级之间的学业成绩有间接影响，因为儿童在二至四年级的学业成绩是由他们以前的学业成绩依次预测的。