| There is a close relationship between working memory and mathematical performance.Some studies suggested that working memory training can improve the ability of working memory,academic performance and cognitive ability.However,some studies showed that work memory training can not improve students' academic performance and cognitive ability.This may be affected by the individual differences,as well as the motivational factors in the training process.This study explored the relationship between cognitive ability,working memory,self-concept,task-focused behavior and different types of mathematical achievements(math problem solving,math fluency)in grade 2 and grade 4.N-back work memory training for grade 2 students was conducted to explore the effect of working memory training on cognitive ability and math achievement and the effect of working memory training on the students with different cognitive ability difficulties,and self-concept,task-focused behavior.This study included two studies.The primary purpose of the first study was to explore the relationship between working memory and different mathematical performance and cognitive ability.One hundred and forty-eight children from Shanghai,China were assessed on measures of nonverbal cognitive ability(Nonverbal Matrices),working memory(N-back),attention(Expressive Attention),and mathematical skills(calculation fluency and math problem-solving).A total of 153 grade 2 and grade 4 students who were selected from two ordinary schools in Shanghai were assessed on measures of work memory(Digital back task,N-back task),mathematics(math problem solving,math fluency),cognitive processing capacity,self-concept and task-focus behavior.It was found that there were significant gender differences in math problem solving and self-concept in grade 4.There were significant differences in math problem solving,math fluency and cognitive processing abilities between grade 2 and grade 4 students.grade 2 students was significantly higher than grade 4 in self-concept;No significant difference was found in task-focus behavior between grade 2 and grade 4 students.The results of correlation analysis showed that there were significant positive correlations among math problem solving and cognitive processing abilities,self-concept and task-focus behavior.There was significant positive correlation between mathematical fluency and planning ability,attention ability and N-back working memory.N-back working memory was significantly positively correlated with simultaneous processing ability,and successive processing ability;working memory span was significantly positively correlated with planning ability,simultaneous processing ability,and successive processing ability;self-concept and task focus were significantly positively correlated with planning,attention,simultaneous processing and working memory span;Self-concept and task focus had no significant correlation with the successive processing.The results of regression showed that in grade 2 and grade 4,N-back and working memory span significantly predicted the math fluency,the working memory span and N-back can't significantly predict the math fluency;task focus significantly predicted math fluency.In grade 2,N-back and working memory span significantly predicted the math problem solving,and self-concept couldn't predict math problem solving.In grade 4,the working memory span and self-concept significantly predicted math problem solving but N-back could't.The purpose of the second study was to explore the effect of working memory training on cognitive processing capacity and mathematics and the influencing factors of working memory training.A total of 54 students in grade 2 were randomly selected as experimental group and control group.The working memory training group were trained with N-back paradigm which conclude visual N-back and auditory N-back.They were trained for a period of 10 weeks,2-3 times a week,a total of 27 times.The results showed that:(1)After working memory training,the students of the training and control groups both had significant improvement in working memory,mathematics and cognitive processing ability.There was no interaction effect in working memory,mathematics and cognitive processing ability.(2)The results of working memory training showed that cognitive ability and motivational factors(self-concept,task-focused behavior)did not affect the working memory training effect.Mathematics and working memory span can affect the effect of training.(3)The math problem solving of the students who were good at mathematics achivements,were significantly higher than those in the control group,which indicated that the N-back working memory training was more effective for the students who were good at mathematics.For the students with math learning difficulties,there had no significant effect after working memory training.(4)The working memory span had a great influence on the effect of N-back working memory training.The math problem solving of the students who were good at working memory span,were significantly higher than those in the control group.,There were significant differences between the training group and the control group for the students who were in low working memory spanThis indicated that N-back working memory training was more effective for students with high working memory span. |
PDF Full Text Request