Disentangling the effects of working memory, language, parental education, and non-verbal intelligence on children’s mathematical abilities

Abstract

It is assumed that children’s performance in mathematical abilities is influenced by several factors such as working memory (WM), verbal ability, intelligence, and socioeconomic status. The present study explored the contribution of those factors to mathematical performance taking a componential view of both WM and mathematics. We explored the existing relationship between different WM components (verbal and spatial) with tasks that make differential recruitment of the central executive, and simple and complex mathematical skills in a sample of 102 children in grades 4–6. The main findings point to a relationship between the verbal WM component and complex word arithmetic problems, whereas language and non-verbal intelligence were associated with knowledge of quantitative concepts and arithmetic ability. The spatial WM component was associated with the subtest Series, whereas the verbal component was with the subtest Concepts. The results also suggest a positive relationship between parental educational level and children’s performance on Quantitative Concepts. These findings suggest that specific cognitive skills might be trained in order to improve different aspects of mathematical ability.

Calculation and word problem‐solving skills in primary grades – Impact of cognitive abilities and longitudinal interrelations with task‐persistent behaviour

“…Our study supports this idea through evidence that linguistic abilities affect both calculation and problem‐solving skills. The finding is in line with many earlier studies emphasizing the importance of linguistic skills for different math skill areas (Cowan et al ., ; Fuchs et al ., ; Pina et al ., ; Purpura & Ganley, ; Träff, ). Thus, knowledge of temporal, spatial, and numerical concepts (that were assessed in our linguistic test) is important not only for solving word problems but also for simple calculation tasks.…”

“…Linguistic abilities contribute to almost every subdomain of early math skills even when the other cognitive abilities and previous math skills are controlled (Cowan et al ., ; Purpura & Ganley, ); however, the effects may vary depending on which linguistic abilities and math skills are examined. Findings indicate that linguistic abilities predict those math skills that require language use (i.e., number naming, word problems, quantitative concepts), but are not related to arithmetic in preschool or upper primary school (LeFevre et al ., ; Pina et al ., ). On the other hand, linguistic abilities might be an antecedent to calculation skills.…”

“…In a study involving children between ages 10 and 13, non‐verbal intelligence contributed to the variability of both calculation and word problem solving, but not to the variability of simple arithmetic fact retrieval, even when number knowledge was taken into account (Träff, ). Similarly, non‐verbal intelligence has been shown to predict conceptual skills, but not simple calculation skills in upper primary school (Pina, Fuentes, Castillo, & Diamantopoulou, ). Taken together, these findings suggest that impact of children's non‐verbal intelligence on math skills might depend on type of skills or difficulty of tasks, as well as age group under investigation.…”

Causes of academic and behavioral difficulties among Japanese-Brazilian students: cognitive, linguistic and parental education factors

“…Recent research has attempted to incorporate indicators of nonverbal cognitive capacity and verbal working memory in CLD and monolingual children (Engel de Abreu et al 2013;Pina et al 2014). Pina et al (2014) explored how children's mathematical performance is affected by working memory and verbal language ability, general intelligence, and socioeconomic status. Their results revealed an association between verbal working memory and arithmetic ability, and also between parental educational level and the grasp of quantitative concepts.…”

Adaptation into European Spanish of the Automated Working Memory Test Battery (AWMA)

“…In fact, working memory deficits are associated with disorders in reading (e.g., López-Escribano, Elosúa de Juan, Gómez-Veiga, & García-Madruga, 2013;Wang & Gathercole, 2014), mathematics (e.g., Geary, Hoard, Byrd-Craven, & DeSoto, 2004;Santos et al, 2012;Pina, Fuentes, Castillo, & Diamantopoulou, 2014), language (e.g., Archibald & Gathercole, 2006;Bandini, Santos, & Souza, 2013;Holmes et al, 2015), and attention (e.g. Martinussen & Tannock, 2006;Holmes et al, 2014).…”