Different components of working memory have different relationships with different mathematical skills.
A comprehensive working memory battery and tests of mathematical skills were administered to 90 children-41 in Year 1 (5-6 years of age) and 49 in Year 3 (7-8 years of age). Working memory could explain statistically significant variance in number writing, magnitude judgment, and single-digit arithmetic, but the different components of working memory had different relationships with the different skills. Visual-spatial sketchpad (VSSP) functioning predicted unique variance in magnitude judgments and number writing. Central executive functioning explained unique variance in the addition accuracy of Year 1 children. The unique variance explained in Year 3 multiplication explained by phonological loop functioning just missed conventional levels of significance (p=.06). The results are consistent with the VSSP having a role in the development of number writing and magnitude judgments but a lesser role in early arithmetic.
School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK. f.r.simmons@ljmu.ac.uk
Fiona R
FR
Simmons
Catherine
C
Willis
Anne-Marie
AM
Adams
D001076:Aptitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D014956:Writing