Examining the relationship between rapid automatized naming and arithmetic fluency in Chinese kindergarten children

Exploring mechanisms of rapid automatized naming to arithmetic skills in Chinese primary schoolers

“…Rapid automatized naming (RAN), the cognitive capacity to name as fast as possible highly familiar visual stimuli (e.g., digits, colors, objects, and letters; Denckla & Cutting, 1999), is associated with children's reading skills (see Araújo, Reis, Petersson, & Faísca, 2015 for a review). Recent studies have shown that RAN is also closely related to children's arithmetic performance (e.g., Cui et al, 2017; Georgiou, Tziraki, Manolitsis, & Fella, 2013; Koponen, Georgiou, Salmi, Leskinen, & Aro, 2017; Koponen, Salmi, Eklund, & Aro, 2013). Because arithmetic consists of different subskills, it remains unclear whether RAN will predict all individual aspects of arithmetic skills and what cognitive processes may explain the aforementioned relations.…”

“…Failure to become proficient in mathematic skills represents a major academic obstacle for children and is related to risks for anxiety, internalizing problems, and other socioemotional maladjustment (Lauer, Esposito, & Bauer, 2018; Passiatore et al, 2017). Given that RAN has been shown as a robust predictor of children's arithmetic performance (Cui et al, 2017; Georgiou et al, 2013; Koponen et al, 2017), the underlying mechanisms that may account for the relation between RAN and arithmetic performance remain unclear. Thus, exploring the mechanisms through which RAN can be predictive of children's arithmetic performance may contribute to understanding the associations between RAN and arithmetic skills.…”

“…However, the existing literature has two notable limitations. First, most studies examined the effect of RAN on an individual aspect of arithmetic skills—arithmetic fluency (Cui et al, 2017; Georgiou et al, 2013; Koponen et al, 2016). In contrast, the relations between RAN and other key aspects of arithmetic skills (e.g., arithmetic procedure and word problems) are less often studied.…”

“…This may occur because arithmetical facts are phonologically coded in the long‐term memory, deficits in phonological representation may interfere with children's ability to retrieve them quickly and accurately (Simmons & Singleton, 2008). However, some studies challenged this perspective by showing that the effect of RAN on arithmetic performance was independent of phonological awareness, phonological short‐term memory, and other phonological processes (Cui et al, 2017; Georgiou et al, 2013; Koponen et al, 2016). We thus examined the role of phonological processing.…”

“…Second, consistent with the arbitrary associations hypothesis (Koponen et al, 2013), RAN may be associated with arithmetic skills because it taps children's ability to acquire arbitrary associations, such as the symbol–sound and visual–verbal associations (Manis, Seidenberg, & Doi, 1999; Willburger, Fussenegger, Moll, Wood, & Landerl, 2008). Although the capacity to establish arbitrary associations between visual symbols and phonological representations is essential of arithmetic fluency (Koponen et al, 2016), literature has been mixed with studies reporting null results on the relation between arbitrary associations and arithmetic skills in preschoolers (Cui et al, 2017). Because arbitrary associations are promoted mainly through systematic instruction that children receive upon school entry (Willburger et al, 2008), it is plausible that the associations among RAN, arbitrary associations, and arithmetic performance may not be established until primary school.…”