Influence Of Verbal And Visuospatial Working Memory On Primary School Students' Mathematical Abilities

The domain-general theory suggests that children's basic cognitive abilities such as working memory(WM)influence the development of children's mathematical abilities.However,previous research has failed to directly answer the question of whether different components of WM,that is,verbal WM and visuospatial WM,have different effects on children's mathematical ability.In addition,previous studies have suggested that age and mathematical domains may influence the relationship between WM and mathematical ability;therefore,the present study investigated the different roles of verbal and visuospatial WM on pupil's mathematical ability,specifically,the moderating role of age and mathematical domains between different WM and mathematical ability.Study 1 measured WM and mathematical abilities of 131 first-graders and 144fifth-graders,aiming to cross-sectionally explore the relationship between verbal and visuospatial WM with calculation and logical-visuospatial ability.Study 2 carried out a follow-up study to explore how verbal and visuospatial WM,mathematical abilities and their relationship develop from first grade to third grade.Taken together,we found that verbal and visuospatial WM play different roles in pupil's mathematical abilities.For first-graders,visuospatial WM was the only factor influencing their overall mathematical performance,while verbal WM did not play any role.Starting in second grade,verbal WM came into play and visuospatial WM continued influencing children's overall mathematical performance.When considering the different mathematical domains,we found that for the development of calculation,visuospatial WM had a significant effect in the first grade,while both verbal and visuospatial WM contributed to that of second graders.Neither verbal nor visuospatial WM had an effect for third-graders.However,logical-visuospatial ability would be affected by both verbal and visuospatial WM regardless of grade.