Rethinking Executive Functions in Mathematical Cognition

Medrano, Josh; Prather, Richard

doi:10.1080/15248372.2023.2172414

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 93 publications

(89 reference statements)

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“…This involves complex issues of how humans acquire, process, and apply mathematical knowledge (Moustafa et al, 2017). In education, exploring the processes and mechanisms of mathematical cognition helps optimize teaching methods, improve students' learning processes, and enhance overall teaching effectiveness (Gilmore, 2023;Medrano and Prather, 2023). Simultaneously, in neuroscience, studying the neural basis of mathematical cognition allows us to understand the operating mechanisms of the brain more deeply (Matejko and Ansari, 2015;Looi et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in the Contributions of Mathematics in the Field of Education and Psychology

Méndez,

Pedro Martínez-Ramón,

Lagos San Martín

et al. 2024

Frontiers Research Topics

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Frontiers is more than just an open access publisher of scholarly articles: it is a pioneering approach to the world of academia, radically improving the way scholarly research is managed. The grand vision of Frontiers is a world where all people have an equal opportunity to seek, share and generate knowledge. Frontiers provides immediate and permanent online open access to all its publications, but this alone is not enough to realize our grand goals. Frontiers journal seriesThe Frontiers journal series is a multi-tier and interdisciplinary set of openaccess, online journals, promising a paradigm shift from the current review, selection and dissemination processes in academic publishing. All Frontiers journals are driven by researchers for researchers; therefore, they constitute a service to the scholarly community. At the same time, the Frontiers journal series operates on a revolutionary invention, the tiered publishing system, initially addressing specific communities of scholars, and gradually climbing up to broader public understanding, thus serving the interests of the lay society, too. Dedication to qualityEach Frontiers article is a landmark of the highest quality, thanks to genuinely collaborative interactions between authors and review editors, who include some of the world's best academicians. Research must be certified by peers before entering a stream of knowledge that may eventually reach the public -and shape society; therefore, Frontiers only applies the most rigorous and unbiased reviews. Frontiers revolutionizes research publishing by freely delivering the most outstanding research, evaluated with no bias from both the academic and social point of view. By applying the most advanced information technologies, Frontiers is catapulting scholarly publishing into a new generation. What are Frontiers Research Topics?Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers journals series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in the Contributions of Mathematics in the Field of Education and Psychology

Méndez,

Pedro Martínez-Ramón,

Lagos San Martín

et al. 2024

Frontiers Research Topics

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“…Our results suggest this is not likely to be effective. On the other hand, teaching specific knowledge and skills that could support using EF in classroom contexts may be effective (Medrano & Prather, 2023;Niebaum & Munakata, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Childhood Executive Function Predicts Concurrent and Later Social and Behavioral Outcomes: A Review and Meta-Analysis

Stucke¹,

Doebel²

2023

Preprint

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Preschool executive function (EF) is widely believed to support development across many domains of life. While it is established that EF predicts academic achievement, claims are also frequently made that it predicts social, health, and behavioral outcomes. These claims are often made on the basis of research assessing constructs that are related to but distinct from EF, such as self-control and self-regulation. The primary literature shows inconsistent patterns. We report a meta-analysis of relations between preschool EF in typically developing children and social, health, and behavioral outcomes measured concurrently, in middle childhood, and in adolescence (904 effect sizes, k = 125, n = 106,426). Preschool EF was related to several outcomes concurrently (prosociality, emotion regulation, lie understanding, lower body mass) and longitudinally (social competence, emotion understanding, peer acceptance, adaptive classroom behavior, lower externalizing behavior); however, effect sizes varied in magnitude and were smaller than those reported in a recent meta-analysis of self-regulation (Robson et al., 2020). Preschool EF was not related to internalizing behaviors or physical fitness. Meta-analysis of some longitudinal associations was precluded due to insufficient studies. Findings were not moderated by EF component (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility). We did not find evidence that composite measures of EF were better predictors than individual indices. These results indicate that preschool EF, as commonly conceptualized and measured, may play a role in outcomes beyond academic achievement, but this role may be more limited than commonly thought. Interventions targeting preschool EF should be reevaluated in light of this evidence.

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“…Executive functions play a critical role in mathematical achievement (Bull & Lee, 2014;Cragg et al, 2017). Slowly, research has started to move from examining broad relations between these cognitive capacities and general math skills to studying specific contributions to particular math abilities or math knowledge (Coulanges et al, 2021;Fuhs et al, 2021;Lee & Lee, 2019;Medrano & Prather, 2023;Van Dooren & Inglis, 2015;Wilkey, 2023). From the three core executive functions (Diamond, 2013;Miyake et al, 2000), inhibitory control has been posed as a pivotal skill to suppress misleading information in both science and mathematics (Brookman-Byrne et al, 2018;Vosniadou et al, 2018).…”

Section: Contributions Of Executive Functioning To Fraction Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using G*Power (Faul et al, 2009), we performed an a priori power analysis to determine the sample size required to detect effect sizes akin to those reported in correlational studies of mathematical achievement and executive functions, r ~ .30 (Medrano & Prather, 2023;Pascual et al, 2019). Such analysis indicated that 80 participants were sufficient to detect medium to large effect sizes (r > .30) with 80% power and alpha = 0.05.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High School Students’ Fraction Comparison Strategy Profiles Relate to Rational Number Difficulties and Cognitive Outcomes

Romero,

matute,

Chamorro

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Students often rely on flawed strategies to compare fractions, focusing on individual components rather than rational magnitudes. An open question is whether using these strategies results in difficulties in other fraction domains or whether they are the consequence of reduced cognitive capacities or attending the wrong numerical distances (e.g., numerator and denominator distances). Mexican high school students (N=76, mean age=16.18 years) completed a fraction comparison task with pairs either compatible with whole-number rules (e.g., 18/19 vs. 12/19) or misleading (e.g., 23/49 vs. 23/30). Participants completed conceptual and procedural fraction knowledge assessments and three executive function tasks. In Study 1, cluster analyses revealed that almost half of the students used flawed componential fraction comparison strategies. Particularly, we found two fully biased (full whole-number bias and full reverse biased) groups, a third group with a reversed bias but only for fractions without common components (partial reverse bias), and a fourth group with overall high performance. Notably, fully biased students had lower math achievement, conceptual and procedural fraction knowledge, and cognitive flexibility than partial bias or high-performance students. In Study 2, we probed differences in rational and componential magnitude processing between these groups. Remarkably, fully biased students did not show distance effects, and partial-bias students showed emerging rational processing. Notably, high-performing students displayed rational distance effects above and beyond componential effects. These results suggest that students who use flawed comparison strategies have not only impaired rational magnitude processing but also deficits in other fraction domains and the cognitive capacities that support their learning.

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Rethinking Executive Functions in Mathematical Cognition

Cited by 11 publications

References 93 publications

Advances in the Contributions of Mathematics in the Field of Education and Psychology

Advances in the Contributions of Mathematics in the Field of Education and Psychology

Early Childhood Executive Function Predicts Concurrent and Later Social and Behavioral Outcomes: A Review and Meta-Analysis

High School Students’ Fraction Comparison Strategy Profiles Relate to Rational Number Difficulties and Cognitive Outcomes

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