Poster #30 - Differences Amongst Eastern Asian Children: Exploring Executive Function and Early Math Skills

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

East and South East Asian children have been found to consistently outperform U.S. children in mathematics as early as preschool years1. Factors such as parental input, transparency in mathematical terms, and early childhood education have been proposed to explain their superior math proficiency. 2 Recently, Executive Function (EF) – the general cognitive ability aimed to facilitate controlling of one’s thoughts and behavior – has been found to predict young children’s academic achievement, including math3.

The present study aimed to further explore the role of EF in early mathematical ability in preschoolers from China and Singapore—nations consistently shown high math achievement scores. 55 Chinese (28 males, Mage = 54.84 months; SD = 5.22) and 48 Singaporean (21 males, Mage = 55.65 months; SD = 5.19) preschoolers were given a battery of EF tasks: measures of attention shifting, inhibitory control, and working memory. Test of Early Mathematics Ability Third Edition (TEMA; Ginsburg & Baroody, 2003) was given to measure early math proficiency. Singaporean children performed significantly better on TEMA (M = 21.58, SD= 7.21) than Chinese children (M = 18.88, SD = 11.39), t(109) = -4.27, p < 0.001, . ηp = .737. When compared to standard TEMA score for U.S. children of similar age, both Singaporean and Chinese children outperformed U.S., p < 0.001; p < 0.001, ηp = .916. The EF tasks showed Chengdu children performing significantly better on the working memory task (M = 5.57, SD = 2.71) than Singaporean (M = 4.00, SD = 2.05), t(109) = 2.26, p = 0.02. No differences were found on inhibitory control or attention shifting. A two-step hierarchical regression analysis revealed executive functioning significantly accounting for an additional 15% of variance in overall math proficiency after controlling for age, F(4,96) = 17.79, p < 0.001. However, working memory was found to uniquely account for increases in total variance.

These findings show multiple factors potentially contributing to math performance in East Asian preschoolers. EF, especially working memory, contributed to math performance, consistent with previous studies3. However, Singaporean children surpassing Chinese on TEMA despite lower scores on working memory presents complexity in understanding the unique role of EF on early math skills. Furthermore, Singaporean children receive mathematics in their primary language, English, an irregular mathematical language deemed to pose challenges learning early math concepts.
EF seems to be increasingly more complicated when including children from multiple East Asian cultures. It is possible that specific factors inherent to these cultures contribute to EF and in turn, superior math performance. Future research should aim to explore cross-cultural differences to better understand the role of EF in learning early mathematical concepts.

Authors

• Can Ali Kilic, San Francisco State University
  Presenting Author

• Jae Paik, San Francisco State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Shinchieh Duh, San Jose State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Celeste Lopez, San Francisco State University
  Non-Presenting Author