Is preschool executive function causally related to academic achievement?

Learning Objectives:
1. To illustrate how previous studies that reported positive associations between executive function and academic achievement in early childhood provided a weak basis of inference given limited attention to confounder variables.
2. To demonstrate how fixed effects analyses can be used in the context of repeated measures designs to provide a less biased estimate of the association between executive function and academic achievement.

Willoughby, M. T., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Voegler-Lee, M. E. (2012). Is preschool executive function causally related to academic achievement?. Child Neuropsychology, 18(1), 79-91.