The relations between measures of Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) cognitive abilities and reading achievement during childhood and adolescence

This study examined the relations between the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities and reading achievement during childhood and adolescence. In a large, nationally representative sample including students 6 to 19 years of age, operational measures of CHC cognitive abilities obtained from the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ III; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) were found to be significantly related to the components of reading achievement. Multiple regression analyses were used to regress several WJ III cognitive clusters onto the WJ III Basic Reading Skills and Reading Comprehension clusters for 14 age groups. Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc) demonstrated moderate to strong relations with the components of reading achievement across childhood and adolescence, and Short-term Memory (Gsm) demonstrated moderate relations throughout this period. Auditory Processing (Ga), Long-term Retrieval (Glr), and Processing Speed (Gs) demonstrated moderate relations with the components of reading achievement during the elementary school years. More specialized cognitive clusters (viz., Phonemic Awareness and Working Memory) demonstrated moderate to strong relations. In contrast, Fluid Reasoning (Gf) and Visual-Spatial Thinking (Gv) demonstrated no consistent pattern of significant relations across childhood and adolescence. The results offer external validity evidence for the WJ III cognitive clusters and provide valuable insights into the specific cognitive abilities that are important for understanding the development of reading skills during childhood and adolescence