Longitudinal associations between cognitive control consistency and academic skills across kindergarten and first grade

Cognitive control fluctuates from moment to moment, even when the sensory and contextual demands of the task remain constant. However, traditional approaches used to measure cognitive control have largely treated such variability as noise and predominantly relied on overall performance metrics, such as accuracy and average response time. Using response time variability as an index of fluctuations in cognitive control, we examined how cognitive control consistency relates to the development of academic skills in children (N = 112) who were followed across kindergarten and first grade, an important period encompassing the transition and acclimation to formal schooling. Cognitive control consistency was assessed via response time variability in a Go/No-Go task, and math and literacy skills were assessed by the Applied Problems and Letter-Word Identification subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement. More consistent cognitive control (indexed by lower response time variability) was associated with stronger math skills both concurrently in kindergarten and prospectively in first grade, above and beyond an accuracy-based metric (d'). In contrast, cognitive control consistency did not relate to literacy skills in kindergarten or first grade, suggesting potential domain-specificity in these relations during the early school years. Together, these findings demonstrate that consistency is an important aspect of cognitive control that uniquely contributes to math performance in early childhood.