Implication of the "cold and hot" executive functions in reading comprehension, in a sample of Peruvian university students

There is a fairly unanimous complaint regarding the deficiencies detected in the comprehension of texts by university students. Several investigations point to the existence of processes involved in understanding such as decoding and language, however, the involvement of the cognitive processes such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, attention or emotional regulation has not been elucidated. The objective of the research is to know the levels of reading comprehension in university students, their cognitive processes involved and analyze the existing relationships between the mentioned variables. The sample consisted of 150 subjects, from two universities with high socioeconomic status (69 subjects) and medium-low (81 subjects). For the evaluation, the Cloze test, Verbal Fluency, WAIS III (vocabulary, substitution of symbols and digits) and Stroop, Emotional Stroop were used. The results show that 39.50% of the public university and 62.30% of the subjects of the private university showed a deficit level in their understanding. In addition, significant differences were found in phonological fluency (F of 4,721, p < 0.004 *), vocabulary (F of 3,341, p < 0.021 *), and search of symbols (F of 4.089, p < 0.008*), among the groups multidisciplinary and critical reading training should be improved during the university stage, in order to increase reading comprehension, the ability to evaluate, build judgments and make decisions.