A Deficit for Arithmetical Procedures: Lack of Knowledge or Lack of Monitoring?

Updating Working Memory and arithmetical attainment in school

“…Moreover, the LA group displayed better performance for the High Inhibition of word stimuli. This is consistent with the proposal for domain-or materialspecific capacities in WM (Butterworth et al, 1996;Semenza, Miceli, & Girelli, 1997). Under this notion, two-digit numbers display greater semantic and syntactic complexity compared to long nouns.…”

“…Additionally, it demonstrates the relationship of a domain-specific updating function within the CE component of WM as implied by studies of neurological patients (Butterworth et al, 1996;Semenza et al, 1997). Finally, our results provide evidence for the importance of considering the different aspects of CE subsystems such as Working Memory Load and Inhibition processes, as they might both be crucial for discriminating WM performance in clinical populations.…”

Neuroscience of learning arithmetic—Evidence from brain imaging studies

“…Other studies investigated the relation between lesion localisation and affected cognitive components (for reviews, Dehaene et al, 2003;Domahs and Delazer, 2005). Several papers confirmed the role of the left parietal structures in simple calculation (e.g., Delazer et al, 2006;Lee, 2000;Van Harskamp and Cipolotti, 2001;Warrington, 1982), although frontal areas seem also to be crucially involved in more complex calculation processes (e.g., Lucchelli and De Renzi, 1993;Semenza et al, 1997). Moreover, not only cortical lesions but also sub-cortical lesions, such as those affecting the basal ganglia, have shown to cause impairment in calculation (e.g., Corbett et al, 1986;Dehaene and Cohen, 1997;Delazer et al, 2004;Whitaker et al, 1985;Zamarian et al, in press).…”

Cognitive predictors of single-digit and procedural calculation skills and their covariation with reading skill

“…In general, although procedural knowledge is seen as distinct from conceptual knowledge, procedures that are not grounded in conceptual understanding are thought to be more error prone (Semenza, Miceli, & Girelli, 1997). Good knowledge of the composition and decomposition of numbers, as well as knowledge of the way numbers relate to each other, enables children to learn a variety of strategies for solving multidigit problems (e.g., 48 + 25 =, 50 + 25 À 2 =).…”