The Role of Cognitive Flexibility in Pattern Understanding

Abstract

The ability to discover a regularity among an ordered set of units, termed patterning, is a crucial cognitive ability that precedes pre-algebraic mathematics skills and possibly reading. However, there is limited research on the cognitive underpinnings of patterning. There is some suggestion that there is a relation between cognitive flexibility, which is the ability to switch attention between two aspects of a stimulus, and patterning. However, no research has focused on this relation in children during early school years, which is when these skills are developing. The current study examined the relation between patterning, cognitive flexibility, and reading in first-grade children in the expectation that they would be related. Performance on the patterning and the card sorting cognitive flexibility measures were significantly related. However, reading and cognitive flexibility were not significantly related. This study is one of the first to show that cognitive flexibility may be an important underlying component of patterning ability.

Teaching Early Literacy, Mathematics, and Patterning to Kindergartners

“…Although the intervention did not improve literacy scores, there were correlations between some literacy measures and patterning scores. Such relations have Psychology been reported previously for first graders, both as a result of interventions (Hendricks et al, 2006;Kidd et al, 2013;Kidd et al, 2014;Pasnak et al, 2015;Shriver et al, 2017) and in the absence of any intervention (Bock et al, 2015;Pasnak et al, 2016, Schmerold et al, 2017. The correlation between the patterning scores for these kindergartners and the TOWRE SWEscale is similar to that between this scale and complex patterns reported for first-graders (Pasnak et al, 2016).…”

Patterning Intervention for Kindergartners

“…Although the intervention did not improve literacy scores, there were correlations between some literacy measures and patterning scores. Such relations have been reported previously for first graders, both as a result of interventions (Hendricks et al, 2006;Kidd et al, 2013;Kidd et al, 2014;Pasnak et al, 2015;Shriver et al, 2017)and in the absence of any intervention (Bock et al, 2015;Pasnak et al, 2016, Schmerold et al, 2017. The correlation between the patterning scores for these kindergartners and the TOWRE SWE scale is similar to that between this scale and complex patterns reported for first graders (Pasnak et al, 2016).…”

Empirical Studies of Patterning

“…However, switching back and forth from increasing, decreasing, and symmetrical patterns does demand flexibility in thinking, and this may account for the relationship observed between patterning and the MCSST. Bock et al (2015) also studied first graders, using Bock's (2015) patterning test, the TERA, and Cartwright's (2002) measure of cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility was also measured via a novel computerized task.…”