Does Strategy Knowledge Influence Working Memory in Children with Mathematical Disabilities?

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM), declarative strategy knowledge, and math achievement in children with and without mathematical disabilities (MD). Experiment 1 examined the relationship between strategy knowledge, verbal WM, and visual-spatial WM in children with MD as a function of initial, gain, and maintenance conditions. The results showed that after partialing the influence of reading, stable strategy choices rather than specific strategy knowledge was related to verbal and visual-spatial WM span in high demand (maintenance) conditions. Experiment 2 compared children with MD to a group of chronological age-matched children and a group of math ability-matched children on the same conditions as Experiment 1. Age-matched children's verbal and visual-spatial WM performance was superior to that of children with MD, whereas WM performance was statistically comparable between children with MD and younger children matched on math ability. The selection of expert strategies was related to high WM span scores in the initial conditions. After controlling for reading achievement in a regression analysis, verbal and visual-spatial WM, stable verbal strategy choices, and expert strategy choices related to visual-spatial processing all contributed independent variance to math achievement. Overall, these results suggest that WM and math achievement are related to strategy knowledge.

Subtypes and comorbidity in mathematical learning disabilities

“…Very few studies tested math ability-matched control children (Andersson and Lyxell, 2007;Keeler and Swanson, 2001;McLean and Hitch, 1999;Swanson, 1993;Swanson and Sachse-Lee, 2001). One of these studies reported that MLD performed worse than age-matched controls but better than ability-matched controls in verbal/visual WM (Swanson, 1993).…”

Qual o papel que a memória de trabalho exerce na aprendizagem da matemática?

“…Em um estudo brasileiro, Corso (2008) Outros pesquisadores acreditam que os problemas principais referentes ao executivo central dizem respeito à recuperação de informação da memória de longo prazo e à coordenação de desempenho de duas operações independentes, do tipo armazenar e processar informação simultaneamente (GEARY, 2004;KELLER;SWANSON, 2001).…”

Mathematics anxiety in secondary students in England

“…For students there is often a perception that the expectations about mathematics skills are unrealistic, for example, in the Anxiety can also adversely impact upon the cognitive skills used during mathematical tasks, such as working memory (Ashcraft, Kirk, & Hopko, 1998). Working memory is a significant predictor of mathematical achievement (Keeler & Swanson, 2001); therefore, anxiety can act to reduce the capacity of one of the key sub-skills needed to succeed in this domain. Hadfield and McNeil (1994) have proposed a model of maths anxiety, which centres on three main factors: environmental, intellectual and personality variables.…”