This study provides the first analyses connecting individual differences in infant attention to reading achievement through the development of executive functioning (EF) in infancy and early childhood. Five‐month‐old infants observed a video, and peak look duration and shift rate were video coded and assessed. At 10 months, as well as 3, 4, and 6 years, children completed age‐appropriate EF tasks (A‐not‐B task, hand game, forward digit span, backwards digit span, and number Stroop). Children also completed a standardized reading assessment and a measure of verbal intelligence (IQ) at age 6. Path analyses on 157 participants showed that infant attention had a direct statistical predictive effect on EF at 10 months, with EF showing a continuous pattern of development from 10 months to 6 years. EF and verbal IQ at 6 years had a direct effect on reading achievement. Furthermore, EF at all time points mediated the relation between 5‐month attention and reading achievement. These findings may inform reading interventions by suggesting earlier intervention time points and specific cognitive processes (i.e. 5‐month attention).

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The contributions of working memory and recollection to academic achievement are typically examined separately and most often with children who have learning difficulties. This study is the first to observe both types of memory in the same study and in typically developing children. Academic achievement focused on standardized assessments of math fluency, calculation, reading fluency, and passage comprehension. As noted in previous studies, working memory was associated with each assessed measure of academic achievement. Recollection, however, specifically contributed to math fluency and passage comprehension. Thus, recollection should be considered alongside working memory in studies of academic achievement.

Contributions of differential behavioral (executive functions) and electrophysiological (frontal-temporal electroencephalogram or EEG coherence) measures to episodic memory performance were examined during middle childhood. Cognitive flexibility and right frontotemporal functional connectivity during encoding (F4/T8), as well as left frontotemporal functional connectivity during retrieval (Fp1/T7), contributed to episodic memory performance in a sample of 9–12 year olds. These results suggest that executive functions differentially influence episodic memory, as does left and right frontotemporal functional connectivity during different portions of the memory task.

Multifocal attention is the ability to simultaneously attend to multiple objects, and is critical for typical functioning. Although adults are able to use multifocal attention, little is known about the development of this ability. In two experiments, we investigated multifocal attention in 6–8-year-old children and adults using a child-friendly, computerized multiple object tracking task designed to encourage the use of multifocal attention. We also investigated whether multifocal attention in children is deployed independently across left and right hemifields of vision, as in adults. Our results suggest that children’s capacity for multifocal attention increases significantly across middle childhood. We also found evidence that at least one signature of hemifield-independent multifocal attention, the bilateral field advantage, can be observed in children.