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Working memory and number line representations in single-digit addition: approximate versus exact, nonsymbolic versus symbolic

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posted on 2016-01-20, 09:03 authored by Iro Xenidou-DervouIro Xenidou-Dervou, Menno van der Schoot, Ernest C.D.M. van Lieshout
How do kindergarteners solve different single-digit addition problem formats? We administered problems that differed solely on the basis of two dimensions: response type (approximate or exact), and stimulus type (nonsymbolic, i.e., dots, or symbolic, i.e., Arabic numbers). We examined how performance differs across these dimensions, and which cognitive mechanism (mental model, transcoding, or phonological storage) underlies performance in each problem format with respect to working memory (WM) resources and mental number line representations. As expected, nonsymbolic problem formats were easier than symbolic ones. The visuospatial sketchpad was the primary predictor of nonsymbolic addition. Symbolic problem formats were harder because they either required the storage and manipulation of quantitative symbols phonologically or taxed more WM resources than their nonsymbolic counterparts. In symbolic addition, WM and mental number line results showed that when an approximate response was needed, children transcoded the information to the nonsymbolic code. When an exact response was needed, however, they phonologically stored numerical information in the symbolic code. Lastly, we found that more accurate symbolic mental number line representations were related to better performance in exact addition problem formats, not the approximate ones. This study extends our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying children's simple addition skills.

Funding

This work was supported by the NWO (National Dutch Organization for Scientific Research) under Grant number PROO 411 07 111.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematics Education Centre

Published in

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Volume

68

Issue

6

Pages

1148 - 1167

Citation

XENIDOU-DERVOU, I., VAN DER SCHOOT, M. and VAN LIESHOUT, E.C.D.M., 2015. Working memory and number line representations in single-digit addition: approximate versus exact, nonsymbolic versus symbolic. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68 (6), pp.1148-1167

Publisher

Taylor & Francis (© 2014 The Experimental Psychology Society)

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology on 19th November 2016 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17470218.2014.977303

ISSN

1747-0218

eISSN

1747-0226

Language

  • en

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