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More than number sense: The additional role of executive functions and metacognition in arithmetic

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

Arithmetic is a major building block for children’s development of more complex mathematical abilities. Knowing which cognitive factors underlie individual differences in arithmetic is key to gain further insight into children’s mathematical development. The current study investigated the role of executive functions and metacognition (domain-general cognitive factors) as well as symbolic numerical magnitude processing (domain-specific cognitive factor) in arithmetic, enabling the investigation of their unique contribution in addition to each other. Participants were 127 typically developing second graders (7- to 8-year-olds). Our within-subject design took into account different components of executive functions (i.e., inhibition, shifting and updating), different aspects of metacognitive skills (i.e., task-specific and general metacognition), and different levels of experience in arithmetic, namely addition – in which second graders had extensive experience-, and multiplication – for which second graders were still in the learning phase. This study reveals that both updating and metacognitive monitoring are important unique predictors of arithmetic, in addition to each other and in addition to symbolic numerical magnitude processing. Our results point to a strong and unique role of task-specific metacognitive monitoring skills. These individual differences in noticing your own errors might help you to learn from your mistakes.
Journal: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
ISSN: 0022-0965
Volume: 182
Pages: 38 - 60
Publication year:2019