Are East Asian versus American differences in arithmetical ability a recent phenomenon?

Abstract

Younger and older American and Chinese adults were administered arithmetic, perceptual speed, and spatial orientation tests. For the perceptual speed and spatial orientation tests, the younger adults showed substantial performance advantages over the older adults in both the United States and China. For the arithmetic tests, the younger Chinese adults outperformed the older Chinese adults, but the groups of younger and older American adults had comparable arithmetical abilities. Cross-national comparisons indicated that the younger Chinese adults outperformed the younger American adults on the arithmetic tests, but not on the perceptual speed and spatial orientation tests. The performance of the older American and older Chinese adults was comparable for all of the ability measures. The overall pattern suggests that the advantage of Chinese adults over American adults in complex arithmetic might be a relatively recent phenomenon. The first systematic cross-national study of mathematical abilities was conducted in 1964 (Hus~n, 1967). The results of this study showed that American adolescents were among the most poorly educated students in mathematics in the industrialized world. In the ensuing 30 years, this basic finding has been replicated many times and has been shown to be true for nearly all mathematical domains, from arithmetic to complex mathematics (Crosswhite, Dossey, Swafford, McKnight, & Cooney, 1985; Lapointe, Mead, & Askew, 1992). Differences between the mathematical development of American children and children from other nations are often times most extreme when comparisons are made between the United States and East Asian nations (i.e., China, Korea, Taiwan, & Japan; e.g., Stevenson, Chen, & Lee, 1993; Stevenson et al., 1990)J The consistency of academic achievement differences between children from the United States and children from East Asian nations has led some scientists to argue that these differences stem

Computational and reasoning abilities in arithmetic: Cross-generational change in China and the United States

“…A more recent study supported the same conclusion (Geary, Salthouse, Chen, & Fan, 1996). Here, groups of comparably educated Chinese and American college students and older (57-to 85-year-old) adults were administered a battery ofpsychometric tests, including measures of computational arithmetic (e.g., 45 +83 + 19), perceptual speed (e.g., speed of reading numbers), and spatial abilities.…”

Cultural differences in complex addition: Efficient Chinese versus adaptive Belgians and Canadians.

“…Previous studies excluded potential causes such as cognitive ability or intelligence (e.g., Geary, 1996a;Geary, Salthouse, et al, 1996). However, there is a variety of other explanations.…”

“…Interestingly, cultural differences in strategy efficiency have been shown in the domain of simple arithmetic. Asians solve simple arithmetic problems (e.g., 7 + 5) more quickly and accurately than North Americans (Campbell & Xue, 2001;Geary, 1996b;Geary, Bow-Thomas, Fan, & Siegler, 1993;Geary, BowThomas, Liu, & Siegler, 1996;Geary, Salthouse, Chen, & Fan, 1996;Geary et al, 1997;LeFevre & Liu, 1997;Penner-Wilger, Leth-Steensen, & LeFevre, 2002). This effect was, in part, a result of cultural differences in strategy selection: Asians retrieved the answers from long-term memory more frequently than North Americans, who were more inclined to use non-retrieval strategies Complex Arithmetic -6 such as transformation (e.g., 7 + 5 = 7 + 3 + 2 = 10 + 2 = 12) or counting (e.g., 7 + 2 = 7, 8, 9).…”

The influence of problem features and individual differences on strategic performance in simple arithmetic

“…Several studies found differences between East Asians' and North Americans' performance on simple arithmetic (see, e.g., Campbell & Xue, 2001;Chen & Uttal, 1988;Geary, 1996;Geary, BowThomas, Liu, & Siegler, 1996;Geary et al, 1997;Geary, Liu, & Bow-Thomas, 1992;Geary, Salthouse, Chen, & Liu, 1996;LeFevre & Liu, 1997;Penner-Wilger, LethSteensen, & LeFevre, 2002;Stevenson, Chen, & Lee, 1993;Stevenson et al, 1990;Stevenson, Lee, & Stigler, 1986). Because East Asians rely primarily on memory retrieval, their arithmetic performance is faster and less error prone than that of North Americans, who frequently use procedures.…”