Dyscalculia and Typical Math Achievement Are Associated With Individual Differences in Number‐Specific Executive Function

Abstract

Deficits in numerical magnitude perception characterize the mathematics learning disability developmental dyscalculia (DD), but recent studies suggest the relation stems from inhibitory control demands from incongruent visual cues in the nonsymbolic number comparison task. This study investigated the relation among magnitude perception during differing congruency conditions, executive function, and mathematics achievement measured longitudinally in children (n = 448) from ages 4 to 13. This relation was investigated across achievement groups and as it related to mathematics across the full range of achievement. Only performance on incongruent trials related to achievement. Findings indicate that executive function in a numerical context, beyond magnitude perception or executive function in a non‐numerical context, relates to DD and mathematics across a wide range of achievement.

Challenging the neurobiological link between number sense and symbolic numerical abilities

“…124 Also, in a large-scale study of middle school children, number comparison performance during incongruent trials of the task continued to predict math achievement after controlling for several components of executive function, including inhibitory control. 123 Similar findings have also been reported in adults. 125 Further, using the same stimulus control method as DeWind et al, 84 Starr et al 126 measured the relative weight placed on numerical and nonnumerical stimulus features in the number comparison task and showed that, in children, number sense was a stronger predictor of math achievement than either nonnumerical bias measured in the comparison task or inhibitory control measured in an independent task.…”

“…For example, in a study of young children, number comparison performance predicted math in two separate experiments using different inhibitory control tasks for each . Also, in a large‐scale study of middle school children, number comparison performance during incongruent trials of the task continued to predict math achievement after controlling for several components of executive function, including inhibitory control . Similar findings have also been reported in adults .…”

“…While previous studies have collapsed across congruency conditions, recent evidence suggests that performance on incongruent trials drives the relation between number comparison performance and mathematics achievement . Further, at least two studies indicate that children with dyscalculia only differ from typically developing peers on performance during incongruent trials . What, then, are the additional cognitive processes used during incongruent trials that specifically relate to math?…”

“…114,120,121 Further, at least two studies indicate that children with dyscalculia only differ from typically developing peers on performance during incongruent trials. 122,123 What, then, are the additional cognitive processes used during incongruent trials that specifically relate to math? And, how are those processes related to number sense?…”

Attentional amplification of neural codes for number independent of other quantities along the dorsal visual stream

“…While earlier behavioral research suggested that the precision of numerical representation is predictive of formal arithmetic and gets refined with development and mathematical learning (Halberda and Feigenson, 2008; Nys et al, 2013; Piazza, 2010; Piazza et al, 2010; Piazza et al, 2013), other recent evidence has led to a slightly different view: what might be changing with development and mathematical competence could be the ability to focus on numerical information while filtering out non-numerical dimensions during a numerical comparison task (Castaldi et al, 2018; Piazza et al, 2018; Starr et al, 2017; Wilkey et al, 2018). The influence of non-numerical dimensions on numerical judgments decreases over normotypical development and both dyscalculic children (Bugden and Ansari, 2016; Piazza et al, 2018; Szucs et al, 2013; Wilkey et al, 2018) and adults (Castaldi et al, 2018) seem to be disproportionately affected by non-numerical dimensions during numerical comparison tasks. In light of these behavioral findings, it would be interesting to see whether in dyscalculic subjects, numerical information at the neuronal level is less precisely encoded overall or merely less accessible to attentional selection.…”