2-152 - The Role of Working Memory in Children’s Mathematical Achievement

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Providing children with a strong foundation of mathematical knowledge is critical for success in school and beyond. Mathematical achievement can impact children’s performance in school, college, and choice of careers (NMAP, 2008). Variation in children’s mathematical achievement can be attributed to both domain-specific sources (e.g., numerical knowledge), as well as underlying domain-general cognitive processing abilities (e.g., working memory (WM, Geary & Hoard, 2005)).

The four papers in this international symposium will address how WM contributes to children’s mathematical achievement and discuss ways to improve mathematical achievement by targeting both children’s numerical knowledge and WM using correlational and experimental approaches.

The first paper examines the mediating role of transcoding numbers or inversion errors in relation between WM and mathematics in a large sample of children from kindergarten to sixth grade. The second paper characterizes the pattern of growth in both WM and math longitudinally from early childhood to mid-adolescence, suggesting that kindergarten may be an optimal time for WM intervention. The third paper discusses potential interventions for kindergarteners targeting either children’s numeracy skills or WM using tablet-based training games. The fourth paper investigates whether targeted WM training improves mathematics performance in ADHD children, and furthermore, whether reducing WM load during learning also facilitates mathematics learning.

Together, these papers demonstrate the critical role of WM as a domain-general process that contributes to mathematical achievement, and they propose ways for promoting both WM and number skills to prevent early weaknesses in math abilities from growing into larger, less tractable, later deficits.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chairs

• Geetha B. Ramani, University of Maryland

• Susanne M. Jaeggi, UC Irvine

Individual Presentations

• Number Transcoding Ability Mediates the Relation between Working Memory and Mathematics Performance - Presenting Author: Sanne van der Ven, Utrecht University; Han L.J. van der Maas, University of Amsterdam; Jonathan Klaiber, University of Amsterdam

• Working Memory Updating Capacity and Math Achievement: From Kindergarten to High School - Presenting Author: Kerry Lee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Rebecca Bull, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

• Domain-General and Domain-Specific Training to Improve Low-income Children’s Mathematics - Presenting Author: Geetha B. Ramani, University of Maryland; Susanne M. Jaeggi, UC Irvine; Emily Daubert, University of Maryland, College Park; Martin Buschkuehl, MIND Research Institute, Irvine

• Keeping Track of the Numbers: The Effects of Working Memory Capacity and Load on Mathematics Performance and Learning - Presenting Author: Amira F. Ibrahim, University of Michigan Ann Arbor; Martin Buschkuehl, MIND Research Institute, Irvine; Susanne M. Jaeggi, UC Irvine; Priti Shah, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor