The relationship between cognitive flexibility and mathematical performance in children: A meta-analysis

Santana, Alanny Nunes de; Roazzi, Antônio; Nobre, Alena Pimentel Mello Cabral

doi:10.1016/j.tine.2022.100179

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Executive functions refer to the processes required to monitor and control thought and action, allowing flexible responses to environment requests, and is composed of several skills such as inhibition, shifting, working memory and updating ( Diamond, 2013 ). There is large evidence in the literature suggesting executive functions as a key process that sustains math learning ( Cragg et al, 2017 ; Bellon et al, 2019 ; Gashaj et al, 2019 ; Spiegel et al, 2021 ; Agostini et al, 2022 ; Santana et al, 2022 ) as well as indicating poor executive functions in ADHD ( Barkley, 1997 ). The results on the cognitive profile of our participants with ADHD confirmed this evidence, showing a clear weakness on the WISC-IV working memory index.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Math difficulties in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do not originate from the visual number sense

Anobile

Bartoli²,

Masi³

et al. 2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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There is ample evidence from literature and clinical practice indicating mathematical difficulties in individuals with ADHD, even when there is no concomitant diagnosis of developmental dyscalculia. What factors underlie these difficulties is still an open question. Research on dyscalculia and neurotypical development suggests visual perception of numerosity (the number sense) as a building block for math learning. Participants with lower numerosity estimation thresholds (higher precision) are often those with higher math capabilities. Strangely, the role of numerosity perception in math skills in ADHD has been neglected, leaving open the question whether math difficulties in ADHD also originate from a deficitary visual number sense. In the current study we psychophysically measured numerosity thresholds and accuracy in a sample of children/adolescents with ADHD, but not concomitant dyscalculia (N = 20, 8–16 years). Math abilities were also measured by tasks indexing different mathematical competences. Numerosity performance and math scores were then compared to those obtained from an age-matched control group (N = 20). Bayesian statistics indicated no difference between ADHD and controls on numerosity perception, despite many of the symbolic math tasks being impaired in participants with ADHD. Moreover, the math deficits showed by the group with ADHD remained substantial even when numerosity thresholds were statistically regressed out. Overall, these results indicate that math difficulties in ADHD are unlikely to originate from an impaired visual number sense.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Math difficulties in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do not originate from the visual number sense

Anobile

Bartoli²,

Masi³

et al. 2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Working memory is crucial in supporting calculation, arithmetic and math problem solving in primary‐school children (meta‐analysis: Friso‐Van den Bos, Van der Ven, Kroesbergen, & Van Luit, 2013). Cognitive flexibility is related to general, conceptual, and procedural math as well, with a greater influence in younger children compared to older ones (for a review: de Santana, Roazzi, & Nobre, 2022).…”

Section: Executive Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Training Executive Functions Within the Mathematical Domain: A Pilot Study with an Integrated Digital‐Paper Procedure in Primary Second‐Grade

Ruffini,

Chini,

Lombardi

et al. 2024

Mind Brain and Education

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Interventions targeting cognitive control processes, such as Executive Functions (EF) have recently been experimented to enhance early math skills. This pilot study explored the feasibility and effectiveness of an intervention integrating EF activities into the mathematical domain among second‐grade students. One hundred and four typically‐developing‐children were assigned to either a group that underwent the intervention (Trained Group; n = 58) or a group that continued with daily didactic activities (Control Group; n = 46). The training lasted for 8 weeks and included both home‐based digital and school‐based paper activities. According to teachers' feedback, the intervention was highly appreciated by children and compatible with classical school curricula. The Trained Group improved in behavioral self‐regulation, math abilities and problem‐solving in comparison to the Control Group. Notably, within the Trained Group, benefits of the training were higher in children with high working memory. This training offers a model to support math learning in primary school, considering inter‐individual differences in EF.

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“…Jesse C. Niebaum & Yuko Munakata Performance on lab-based assessments of executive functions improves dramatically across childhood and predicts concurrent and future academic achievement for children around the world (Ahmed et al, 2019;Cortés Pascual et al, 2019;de Santana et al, 2022;Robson et al, 2020;Spiegel et al, 2021). To leverage these associations, vast research and commercial efforts have been devoted to supporting the development and improvement of executive functions through cognitive training interventions, in hopes of improving academic achievement and other positive life outcomes.…”

Section: Why Doesn't Executive Function Training Improve Academic Ach...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several large-scale, longitudinal studies have found correlations between performance on executive function tasks and concurrent and future academic achievement (Ahmed et al, 2019;Cortés Pascual et al, 2019;de Santana et al, 2022;Robson et al, 2020). These relationships are typically interpreted as increasing executive function capacities supporting higher achievement in the classroom and beyond (Casey et al, 2011;Duckworth et al, 2013;Moffitt et al, 2011;Munakata et al, 2012;Spiegel et al, 2021;Young et al, 2009).…”

Section: Achievement In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Doesn’t Executive Function Training Improve Academic Achievement? Rethinking Individual Differences, Relevance, and Engagement from a Contextual Framework

Niebaum

Munakata

2022

Journal of Cognition and Development

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Performance on lab assessments of executive functions predicts academic achievement and other positive life outcomes. A primary goal of research on executive functions has been to design interventions that improve outcomes like academic achievement by improving executive functions. These interventions typically involve extensive practice on abstract lab-based tasks and lead to improvements on these practiced tasks. However, interventions rarely improve performance on non-practiced tasks and rarely benefit outcomes like academic achievement. Contemporary frameworks of executive function development suggest that executive functions develop and are engaged within personal, social, historical, and cultural contexts. Abstract lab-based tasks do not well-capture the real-world contexts that require executive functions and should not be expected to provide generalized benefits outside of the lab. We propose a perspective for understanding individual differences in performance on executive function assessments that focuses on contextual influences on executive functions. We extend this contextual approach to training executive function engagement, rather than training executive functions directly. First, interventions should incorporate task content that is contextually relevant to the targeted outcome. Second, interventions should encourage engaging executive functions through reinforcement and contextual relevance, which may better translate to real-world outcomes than training executive functions directly. While such individualized executive functions interventions do not address systemic factors that greatly impact outcomes like academic achievement, given the extensive resources devoted to improving executive functions, we hypothesize that interventions designed to encourage children's engagement of executive functions hold more promise for impacting real-world outcomes than interventions designed to improve executive function capacities.

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The relationship between cognitive flexibility and mathematical performance in children: A meta-analysis

Cited by 18 publications

References 46 publications

Math difficulties in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do not originate from the visual number sense

Math difficulties in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do not originate from the visual number sense

Training Executive Functions Within the Mathematical Domain: A Pilot Study with an Integrated Digital‐Paper Procedure in Primary Second‐Grade

Why Doesn’t Executive Function Training Improve Academic Achievement? Rethinking Individual Differences, Relevance, and Engagement from a Contextual Framework

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