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Related Experiment Videos

Working memory and children's mental addition

J W Adams1, G J Hitch

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of York, York, Heslington, YO1 5DD, United Kingdom. jwa1@york.ac.uk

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|November 5, 1997
PubMed
Summary
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Children's mental arithmetic ability is limited by working memory capacity, not just math skills. This study shows working memory plays a key role in children's calculation performance across cultures.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Educational Psychology

Background:

  • Working memory is crucial for complex cognitive tasks.
  • The relationship between working memory and arithmetic competence in children is not fully understood.
  • Cross-cultural comparisons can reveal universal cognitive mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether working memory or arithmetic competence primarily constrains children's mental arithmetic.
  • To examine the role of working memory in mental addition across different age groups and cultures.
  • To compare the working memory demands of mental addition with artificial working memory tasks.

Main Methods:

  • A span procedure was employed to measure working memory limits during mental addition.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Experiments involved English- and German-speaking children aged 7 to 11 years.
  • The study compared mental addition spans with numbers visible versus not visible.

    • Main Results:

    • Mental addition spans were higher when numbers remained visible, indicating working memory load.
    • Children's addition span varied linearly with the speed of integer addition and age.
    • Similar speed/span relationships were found for mental addition and a counting span task.

    Conclusions:

    • Mental addition, like artificial tasks, reflects working memory as a general-purpose resource.
    • Working memory constraints, rather than arithmetic competence, appear to limit children's mental arithmetic.
    • The findings suggest universal properties of working memory across age groups and cultures.