title: The cognitive underpinnings of emerging mathematical skills: executive functioning, patterns, numeracy, and arithmetic.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Exposure to mathematical pattern tasks is often deemed important for developing children's algebraic thinking skills. Yet, there is a dearth of evidence on the cognitive underpinnings of pattern tasks and how early competencies on these tasks are related to later development.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We examined the domain-specific and domain-general determinants of performances on pattern tasks by using (a) a standardized test of numerical and arithmetic proficiency and (b) measures of executive functioning, respectively.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 163 6-year-olds enrolled in primary schools that typically serve families from low to middle socioeconomic backgrounds.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children were administered a battery of executive functioning (inhibitory, switching, updating), numerical and arithmetic proficiency (the Numerical Operations task from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-II), and three types of pattern tasks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Contrary to findings from the adult literature, we found all the executive functioning measures coalesced into two factors: updating and an inhibition/switch factor. Only the updating factor predicted performances on the pattern tasks. Although performance on the pattern tasks were correlated with numerical and arithmetic proficiency, findings from structural equation modelling showed that there were no direct or independent relationships between them.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that the bivariate relationships between pattern, numeracy, and arithmetic tasks are likely due to their shared demands on updating resources. Unlike older children, these findings suggest that for 6-year-olds, better numerical and arithmetic proficiency, without accompanying advantages in updating capacities, will no more likely lead to better performance on the pattern tasks.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Education, Singapore. Kerry.Lee@nie.edu.sg
authors.forename: Kerry
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Swee Fong
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Madeline Lee
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Pe
authors.forename: Su Yin
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Ang
authors.forename: Muhammad Nabil Azhar Mohd
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Hasshim
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bull
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D001076:Aptitude; D002648:Child; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012846:Singapore; D014888:Wechsler Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data