Executive functions underlying multiplicative reasoning: problem type matters.
We investigated the extent to which inhibition, updating, shifting, and mental-attentional capacity (M-capacity) contribute to children's ability to solve multiplication word problems. A total of 155 children in Grades 3-6 (8- to 13-year-olds) completed a set of multiplication word problems at two levels of difficulty: one-step and multiple-step problems. They also received a reading comprehension test and a battery of inhibition, updating, shifting, and M-capacity measures. Structural equation modeling showed that updating mediated the relationship between multiplication performance (controlling for reading comprehension score) and latent attentional factors M-capacity and inhibition. Updating played a more important role in predicting performance on multiple-step problems than did age, whereas age and updating were equally important predictors on one-step problems. Shifting was not a significant predictor in either model. Implications of proposing executive function updating as a mediator between mathematical cognition and chronological age and attention resources are discussed.
Agostino
Alba
A
Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ont., Canada M3J 1P3. agostino@uoguelph.ca
Johnson
Janice
J
Pascual-Leone
Juan
J
D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D032882:Comprehension; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011340:Problem Solving; D011932:Reading