The distinct contribution of verbal and visuospatial short-term memory abilities to arithmetic development

[en] Many studies have shown that both verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) abilities predicted arithmetic abilities but we do not know if they represent a modality-specific contribution or reflect the involvement of an often shared WM aspect: the serial order storage. We administered verbal and visuospatial short-term memory (STM) tasks with variable serial order storage requirements and a mental calculation task in children. We observed that verbal serial order STM abilities predicted early mathematical abilities independently of verbal item STM and visuospatial STM abilities. For visuospatial STM abilities, a more general link with overall arithmetic abilities was observed in 8-year-old children, with the serial order task predicting additions, and the simultaneous task predicting subtractions. In 9-year-old children, no link with mathematical abilities was observed anymore for any STM measure. These data confirm a specific and complementary role of verbal and visuospatial serial order STM abilities in mathematical development.

Research center :

PsyNCog - Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives - ULiège

Disciplines :

Theoretical & cognitive psychology

Author, co-author :

Attout, Lucie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Département de Psychologie

Majerus, Steve ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Département de Psychologie

Language :

English

Title :

The distinct contribution of verbal and visuospatial short-term memory abilities to arithmetic development

Publication date :

March 2022

Journal title :

Cognitive Development

ISSN :

0885-2014

eISSN :

1879-226X

Publisher :

Elsevier, Netherlands

Volume :

Issue :

101139

Pages :

1-15

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]

Available on ORBi :

since 28 November 2021

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