Text availability and reading performance in adolescence: Which implication of executive functions?

Recent definitions of reading emphasize the need of considering the context in which this activity is carried out. Within this perspective, the present study seeks to examine the influence of two reading situations (to read a text knowing that it will – or not – remain available when answering comprehension questions) and their consequent reading strategies (integral vs. selective) on 13-14-year-old teenagers’ reading comprehension performance, and to examine the differential role of executive functions in these two situations. The results show that text availability interacts with text properties (single vs. multiple) and question type (low- vs. high-level). In addition, executive skills seem to be involved preferentially in situations where readers keep the texts available when answering questions, suggesting that such a situation indeed reflects a more strategic reading behaviour.