Role Of Executive Function In Mathematical Ability Of Children In Different Grades

The executive functioning is a crucial cognitive function that plays an essential role in the development of school-age children’s mathematical abilities.Research indicated that individuals with effective executive functioning can ignore irrelevant information and resist distracting stimuli on the condition that performing mathematical tasks,switch flexibly between distinct manipulative and problem-solving strategies,as well as store information related to manipulating numbers.Nonetheless,inconsistent research has been conducted on the associations between subcomponents of executive function and children’s varying mathematical abilities.On the basis of this,the present study systematically investigated the role of each executive function component in children’s distinct mathematical abilities and if this pattern of influence reveals grade-level-specific variations.A total of 812 children in grades 3-6 were selected for this study,and the role of each executive function component(including interference inhibition,response inhibition,working memory span,working memory updating,and cognitive flexibility)in three mathematical skills(mathematical operation,spatial imagination,and logical thinking)in children at distinct grades was examined employing methods,namely,correlation analysis and structural equation model(SEM).In comparison to inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility,the results revealed that working memory was the most influential factor on children’s mathematical skills.Particularly,working memory span was the most crucial predictor of mathematical operation ability,whereas working memory updating was a stronger predictor of spatial imagination and logical thinking ability at the third to sixth-grade level.In a further analysis of the data,the four grades were divided into two grade levels by dividing them into two grade stages,with grades3 and 4 set as the younger group and grades 5 and 6 set as the older group.The results showed working memory span to be the most important predictor of mathematical operation ability,spatial imagination ability,and logical thinking ability in the junior grades.In the older students,the predictive effect of working memory span on basic math ability dropped,and the effects of working memory updating and cognitive flexibility on basic math ability increased.These results indicate that different components of executive function play various roles in different mathematical abilities in school-age children,and that this pattern of influence appears to change as children progress through the grades.