Representation and working memory in early arithmetic

被引:268
作者
Rasmussen, C [1 ]
Bisanz, J [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Alberta, Dept Psychol, Ctr Res Child Dev, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada
基金
加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;
关键词
working memory; arithmetic; mental model; representation;
D O I
10.1016/j.jecp.2005.01.004
中图分类号
B844 [发展心理学(人类心理学)];
学科分类号
040202 ;
摘要
Working memory has been implicated in the early acquisition of arithmetic skill, but the relations among different components of working memory, performance on different types of arithmetic problems, and development have not been explored. Preschool and Grade I children completed measures of phonological, visual-spatial, and central executive working memory, as well as nonverbal and verbal arithmetic problems, some of which included irrelevant information. For preschool children, accuracy was higher on nonverbal problems than on verbal problems, and the best and only unique predictor of performance on the standard nonverbal problems was visual-spatial working memory. This finding is consistent with the view that most preschoolers use a mental model for arithmetic that requires visual-spatial working memory. For Grade I children, performance was equivalent on nonverbal and verbal problems, and phonological working memory was the best predictor of performance on standard verbal problems. For both age groups, problems with added irrelevant information were substantially more difficult than standard problems, and in some cases measures of the central executive predicted performance. Assessing performance on different components of working memory in conjunction with different types of arithmetic problems provided new insights into the developing relations between working memory and how children do arithmetic. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:137 / 157
页数:21
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