COORDINATOR
Nuria Carriedo López holds a PhD in Psychology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and is a professor in the Department of Developmental Psychology and Education at UNED. Since 1989, she has taught at various universities in Spain and Latin America, focusing on courses in Basic and Developmental Psychology for Bachelor’s programs in Psychology, Social Education, and Pedagogy, as well as in Master’s and doctoral programs. She has authored six books and 23 book chapters, many of which are recommended reading at universities worldwide. One of her publications earned her the First Prize for New Teaching Units from UNED’s Social Council in 2003.
Her research explores text comprehension, reasoning, and executive processes, examining their relationship with cognitive development, academic performance, and social adaptation. She has contributed to 14 research projects, published three books, 16 chapters, and 37 scientific articles, and presented 48 papers at scientific conferences. In recognition of her research, she has received two national awards. She is the principal investigator of UNED’s consolidated research group Theoretical and Applied Approaches to the Study of Executive Functioning (https://portalcientifico.uned.es/investigadores/183104/detalle)
In academic administration, she has held various leadership roles at UNED, including Teaching Secretary, Department Director, Coordinator of the Teacher Training Master’s Program, Deputy Vice-Rector for Official Postgraduate Studies, and Vice-Rector for Academic Organization and Quality. She has served on scientific committees for conferences and as an associate editor for journals such as Infancia y Aprendizaje and Psicológica. Additionally, she has worked as an evaluator for quality agencies, including ACAP, ACSUCYL, and ANECA, and has assessed scientific projects for ANEP and the Italian Ministry of Universities.
Acquiring strong reading comprehension and mathematical skills is a fundamental academic goal essential for social adaptation and individual well-being. However, recent international educational reports, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (von Davier et al., 2024a) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) (von Davier et al., 2024b), indicate that Spanish fourth-grade students perform below the OECD and European Union average in both mathematics and reading comprehension. Additionally, a significant percentage of these children demonstrate low or very low proficiency in reading comprehension (25%) and mathematics (37.8%), placing Spain among the countries that have seen a decline in average performance over the past eight years.
These findings present a major challenge, highlighting the need to investigate the cognitive processes that influence academic achievement in these areas. Executive functioning (EF) has been proposed as a set of essential cognitive control processes required for managing academic tasks with high attentional demands, such as reading comprehension and mathematical problem-solving.
This symposium aims to examine the contribution of three core executive functions— inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility (Miyake et al., 2000) –– to reading comprehension and mathematical achievement across different educational levels. In addition to EF, the role of other cognitive variables, such as fluid intelligence and processing speed, will be explored, along with the impact of emotional factors, particularly math anxiety. Furthermore, we will address the ongoing challenges in conceptualizing and measuring EF, key aspects that remain central to advancing research in this field.