Children's strategies in computational estimation

Lemaire, Patrick; Lecacheur, Mireille

doi:10.1016/s0022-0965(02)00107-8

Cited by 88 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In the present study, identical processing operations were included in the experimenterpaced and limited-pace tasks, allowing a direct comparison of administration method in terms of predictive power. Moreover, because Lépine et al only included sixth-grade children, and children can differ from adults in terms of the complexity of the retrieval structures used to buttress strategies, as well as strategy execution (Gaultney, Kipp, & Kirk, 2005;Lemaire & Lecacheur, 2002), it is unclear to what extent their findings would generalize to adults. Finally, Lépine et al compared experimenter-paced and limited-pace tasks within subjects, and the order of the tests was not counterbalanced, leading to potential carryover or practice effects.…”

Section: Methods Of Administering Complex Span Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of complex working memory span task administration methods on prediction of higher level cognition and metacognitive control of response times

McCabe

2010

Memory & Cognition

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868The concept of working memory (WM) has become central to understanding complex cognition. Although researchers debate the specific details of models of WM, it can generally be defined as the cognitive system responsible for maintaining information or task goals in an active state over brief periods of time. Part of the reason for the success of WM as a model of short-term cognitive processing is that individual differences in the ability to maintain and manipulate information in WM, referred to as working memory capacity (WMC; Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999), have been linked to various measures of higher level cognition, including reading comprehension (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980; TurleyAmes & Whitfield, 2003), episodic memory (McCabe & Smith, 2002;Oberauer, 2005;Park et al., 2002), executive function (Miyake, Friedman, Rettinger, Shah, & Hegarty, 2001), and general fluid intelligence (Engle et al., 1999;Kyllonen & Christal, 1990).Research on individual differences in WMC has primarily been based on examination of the relationship between performance on complex span tasks (e.g., reading span) and measures of higher level cognition. These complex span tasks typically require participants to encode and maintain several to-be-remembered items while completing some interpolated processing task, such as reading or arithmetic, that is intended to disrupt that maintenance. The participants are further required to recall the to-beremembered items in serial order. Complex span tasks can be contrasted with simple span tasks, which only require the maintenance and retrieval of to-be-remembered items in serial order. Recall is poorer for complex span tasks than for simple span tasks, and complex span tasks typically show stronger correlations with higher level cognition (e.g., Ackerman, Beier, & Boyle, 2005; but see Unsworth & Engle, 2007, for a detailed discussion of the similarities between simple and complex span tasks). Consequently, complex span tasks have become popular tools in the investigation of individual differences in many areas of psychology (see Engle & Kane, 2004, for a review).Some models of WM suggest that the reason that complex span tasks are more strongly related to complex cognition than are simple span tasks is that the former are more likely than the latter to engage the central executive component of WM (Baddeley, 2000;Engle et al., 1999). Indeed, individual differences in WMC have often been conceptualized as the efficiency of the central executive component of the WM system (Engle et al., 1999;McCabe, Roediger, McDaniel, Balota, & Hambrick, 2010), and this is the definition of WM capacity used in the present study. Of course, complex span tasks engage other abilities in addition to executive control processes. For example, Engle's model of WMC (see Engle et al., 1999) indicates that task-specific strategies related to grouping or maintenance strategies, which are unrelated to attenThe influence of complex working memory span task administration methods on prediction of higher level c...

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Section: Methods Of Administering Complex Span Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of complex working memory span task administration methods on prediction of higher level cognition and metacognitive control of response times

McCabe

2010

Memory & Cognition

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“…Data obtained in no-choice conditions provide reliable strategy eYciency measures. Some recent studies applied the choice/no-choice method successfully to investigate children's arithmetic performance (e.g., Carr & Davis, 2001;Lemaire & Lecacheur, 2002;Torbeyns, VerschaVel, & Ghesquière, 2002.…”

Section: The Role Of Working Memory In Children's Arithmetic Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of strategy use in elementary school children: Working memory and individual differences

Imbo¹,

Vandierendonck²

2007

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

197

172

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The current study tested the development of working memory involvement in children's arithmetic strategy selection and strategy eYciency. To this end, an experiment in which the dual-task method and the choice/no-choice method were combined was administered to 10-to 12-year-olds. Working memory was needed in retrieval, transformation, and counting strategies, but the ratio between available working memory resources and arithmetic task demands changed across development. More frequent retrieval use, more eYcient memory retrieval, and more eYcient counting processes reduced the working memory requirements. Strategy eYciency and strategy selection were also modiWed by individual diVerences such as processing speed, arithmetic skill, gender, and math anxiety. Short-term memory capacity, in contrast, was not related to children's strategy selection or strategy eYciency.

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“…As expected, this interaction revealed that the execution of the complex strategy was more impaired under working-memory load condition than was the Note: CRT task ¼ Choice Reaction Time task. 2 We also calculated two types of percentage of deviation between estimates and correct products for each problem and each participant (e.g., LeFevre et al, 1993;Lemaire et al, 2004;Lemaire & Lecacheur, 2002b;Lemaire et al, 2000;Levine, 1982). The first one is based on the difference between correct products of operands and participants' answers.…”

Section: Crt Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Working Memory, Strategy Execution, and Strategy Selection in Mental Arithmetic

Imbo

Duverne²,

Lemaire

2007

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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A total of 72 participants estimated products of complex multiplications of two-digit operands (e.g., 63 × 78), using two strategies that differed in complexity. The simple strategy involved rounding both operands down to the closest decades (e.g., 60 × 70), whereas the complex strategy required rounding both operands up to the closest decades (e.g., 70 × 80). Participants accomplished this estimation task in two conditions: a no-load condition and a working-memory load condition in which executive components of working memory were taxed. The choice/no-choice method was used to obtain unbiased strategy execution and strategy selection data. Results showed that loading working-memory resources led participants to poorer strategy execution. Additionally, participants selected the simple strategy more often under working-memory load. We discuss the implications of the results to further our understanding of variations in strategy selection and execution, as well as our understanding of the impact of working-memory load on arithmetic performance and other cognitive domains.

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Children's strategies in computational estimation

Cited by 88 publications

References 42 publications

The influence of complex working memory span task administration methods on prediction of higher level cognition and metacognitive control of response times

The influence of complex working memory span task administration methods on prediction of higher level cognition and metacognitive control of response times

The development of strategy use in elementary school children: Working memory and individual differences

Working Memory, Strategy Execution, and Strategy Selection in Mental Arithmetic

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