Children's additive concepts: Promoting understanding and the role of inhibition

Robinson, Katherine M.; Dubé, Adam K.

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2012.07.016

Cited by 50 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…CF was related to neither; however, it is possible that CF may be engaged only for items that require shifting between and engaging both conceptual and procedural skill, but not for understanding the conceptual and procedural aspects of math themselves. These relations of IC to conceptual math knowledge and WM to procedural math knowledge are supported by the prior literature (Cragg & Gilmore, ; LeFevre et al, ; McLean & Hitch, ), but have been reported largely for older children (Hecht, Close, & Santisi, ; Robinson & Dubé, ). By limiting the present investigation to early childhood—a period during which children are rapidly developing an understanding of conceptual and procedural skills that underlie much of their later mathematical understanding—we are able to extend findings from prior investigations to suggest that different facets of EF might support the learning of different skills—or be engaged in the solving of different problem types—even within the same academic domain.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Cognitive Abilities and Mathematical Competencies at School Entry

Ribner

Moeller

Willoughby

et al. 2017

Mind Brain and Education

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The aim of this study was to identify mathematical competencies in early childhood and cognitive correlates of those competencies in a prospective longitudinal sample of children (N=1292) in predominantly low-income and nonurban communities in the United States. General mental ability (IQ), processing speed, vocabulary, and the working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility components of executive function (EF) were assessed when children were ages 4 and 5. Math ability was assessed prior to school entry using a norm-referenced assessment. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that items from the math assessment loaded onto factors representing conceptual and procedural skill. IQ, processing speed, vocabulary, and a unitary EF composite all related to both conceptual and procedural skill. When EF components were examined separately, however, only the inhibitory control aspect of EF was related to conceptual skill and only the working memory aspect of EF was related to procedural skill.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Cognitive Abilities and Mathematical Competencies at School Entry

Ribner

Moeller

Willoughby

et al. 2017

Mind Brain and Education

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show abstract

“…Compensating for weaknesses in one area through the use of alternative strategies is likely to require good attentional control, in order to inhibit prepotent strategies (e.g. Robinson & Dubé, 2013). This adds to the evidence of moderation effects, further demonstrating that the relationships between basic numerical skills and overall achievement are not independent of domain-general resources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The interaction of procedural skill, conceptual understanding and working memory in early mathematics achievement

et al. 2017

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Large individual differences in children's mathematics achievement are observed from the start of schooling. Previous research has identified three cognitive skills that are independent predictors of mathematics achievement: procedural skill, conceptual understanding and working memory. However, most studies have only tested independent effects of these factors and failed to consider moderating effects. We explored the procedural skill, conceptual understanding and working memory capacity of 75 children aged 5 to 6 years as well as their overall mathematical achievement. We found that, not only were all three skills independently associated with mathematics achievement, but there was also a significant interaction between them. We found that levels of conceptual understanding and working memory moderated the relationship between procedural skill and mathematics achievement such that there was a greater benefit of good procedural skill when associated with good conceptual understanding and working memory. Cluster analysis also revealed that children with equivalent levels of overall mathematical achievement had differing strengths and weaknesses across these skills. This highlights the importance of considering children's skill profile, rather than simply their overall achievement.

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“…Interestingly, although inhibition and shifting previously have been shown to be impaired in children with RD (Booth et al, ), for both groups, greater inhibition test results were still associated with greater fluency abilities. This suggests that suppressing distracting information or unwanted answers is crucial for stronger and accurate fluency in general, and all the more so for reading and arithmetic fluency (Horowitz‐Kraus, , b; Robinson & Dubé, ). These findings may suggest that mathematical cognition is not unitary, but relies on different EF subcomponents and consists of multiple components (Cowan et al, ; Dowker, ; Jordan & Wylie, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered association between executive functions and reading and math fluency tasks in children with reading difficulties compared with typical readers

2019

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Fluent reading in children relies on executive functions (EF). Recent research suggests that EF skills also affect arithmetic abilities. Children with reading difficulties (RD) experience deficits in EF. It is still unknown to what extent these EF deficits are the basis for both reading and arithmetic skills in children with RD compared with typical readers. To define the role of EF in reading and arithmetic in children with RD and typical readers, EF measures and reading and arithmetic fluency and non‐fluency measures were assessed in 8 to 12‐year‐old children with RD and age‐matched typical readers. Comparison and correlation analyses were performed within and between the two groups. Children with RD scored lower on reading and arithmetic fluency and non‐fluency tasks compared with typical readers. For both groups, fluency measures were lower than non‐fluency measures. Strong correlations were found within the entire study population between fluency measures and EF, as well as between non‐fluency measures and EF compared with mixed correlations observed for the groups separately. Fluency was related to subcomponents of EF expressed in both reading and arithmetic domains for the two groups. The role of each domain and comparison with non‐fluency results for each group are discussed.

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Children's additive concepts: Promoting understanding and the role of inhibition

Cited by 50 publications

References 27 publications

Cognitive Abilities and Mathematical Competencies at School Entry

Cognitive Abilities and Mathematical Competencies at School Entry

The interaction of procedural skill, conceptual understanding and working memory in early mathematics achievement

Altered association between executive functions and reading and math fluency tasks in children with reading difficulties compared with typical readers

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