Developmental Characteristics Of Working Memory In Children Aged 4-5 Years And Its Effect On Mathematical Ability

Working memory is a memory system with limited capacity for temporary processing and storage of information(Baddeley,1992),which plays an important role in advanced cognitive functions such as mathematics,speech comprehension and reading,and problem solving(Chen ying and wang mingyi,2005).A large number of studies have shown that working memory can to some extent explain individual differences in early math learning and predict later math levels(Prebler AL,2013;Frisovan den Bos,Kroesbergen,& van Luit,2015).Early childhood is a period of rapid development of working memory,so it is of great scientific value and practical significance to study the development characteristics and training promotion of working memory of children.Although foreign researchers have investigated the development of various components of preschool children's working memory,there are few studies on the development system of preschool children's working memory in China.On the other hand,most of the evidence for the influence of working memory on the development of mathematical ability comes from related studies(De Smedt et al.,2009),and the results of many related studies are inconsistent.Some researchers believe that working memory is closely related to mathematical ability(Bull,Johnston,& Roy,1999).McLean & Hitch,1999),while some studies suggest that mathematical ability may not be associated with working memory(Reuhkala,2001);In addition,the effects of different subcomponents of working memory on mathematical ability vary with age(Henry & MacLean,2003;Holmes & Adams,2006;McKenzie,Bull,& Gray,2003),but because most studies are cross-sectional,longitudinal studies or intervention studies using the same sample of children are lacking(De Smedt et al.,2009),which cannot well explain the relationship between working memory and mathematical ability.Therefore,this study discussed two questions:(1)study of children aged 4 to 5 working memory(including voice ring/visual space template/central executiveDengZi composition)of the development level and characteristics of,and to explore children's working memory(voice ring/visual space template/central executive)and mathematical ability(including the number concept/operation/reasoning/space ability)the relationship between;(2)design the improvement training of children's working memory,investigate the influence of working memory training on the development of mathematical ability,and try to further explore the relationship between working memory and mathematical ability.The first study examined the development level and characteristics of working memory in children aged 4-5 years and the relationship between working memory and mathematical ability.It was divided into three parts.First of all,in order to explore the development level of children aged4 to 5 working memory and characteristics,choose a kindergarten children aged 4 to 5,103(including four children's 25 years old group,4.5 years old group of 53 people,5 years of age group of 25 people),using Gathercole(2004),the number of people along the back test,digital pour back test and wechsler intelligence scale for children animal home test respectively three child elements for children's working memory(voice ring/implementation of the central/visual space template).The results showed that :(1)in general,children's overall working memory developed rapidly with the growth of age,but the development speed of each sub-component was different;(2)for the speech loop of children's working memory,there was no significant difference between the score of the 4.5-year-old group and that of the 4-year-old group,while the score of the 5-year-old group was significantly higher than that of the 4.5-year-old group.For the central execution system of children,the score of the 5-year-old group was significantly higher than that of the 4-year-old group,and the difference between the score of the 5-year-old group and that of the 4.5-year-old group was marginal.There was no significant difference between the score of the 4.5-year-old group and that of the 4-year-old group.For children's visual spatial template,there was no significant difference in the scores of the three groups,and the development speed of visual spatial template of children aged 4-5 years was relatively slow.Secondly,to examine children's working memory each component and the relationship between mathematical Ability,this study integrated bnu and Early childhood Mathematics Ability Test 2(the Test of Early Mathematics Ability,TEMA-2)Test,select number sequence and ordinal task,symbolic computation tasks,model construction tasks and mental rotation tasks respectively on the same four of children's mathematical Ability(number concept/operation/mathematical reasoning/space)measurement,explore relationship of each component and mathematical Ability working memory.The results showed that :(1)correlation analysis showed that there were different degrees of correlation between different sub-components of working memory and different sub-abilities of mathematical ability in children aged 4-5 years.Specifically,the number concept of children has a significant positive correlation with the speechloop and central execution of working memory.There is a significant positive correlation between children's mathematical reasoning ability and central executive of working memory.There was a significant positive correlation between children's number operation and mathematical spatial ability and the three sub-components of working memory.(2)three sub-components of working memory were used as the prediction variable,and a certain mathematical ability(number concept/number operation/spatial ability)was used as the result variable for regression analysis.Voice loop can predict number operation;Visual spatial templates can significantly predict spatial ability.Finally,to explore the effect of working memory on mathematical ability with age,this study divided children into three age groups and analyzed the correlation between working memory and mathematical ability again.The results showed that :(1)after controlling for age,the correlation between the sub-components of working memory and mathematical abilities changed greatly.Among them,mathematical reasoning ability is only significantly correlated with central execution after controlling age.The number operation ability of mathematics is related to the speech loop and visual-spatial template of working memory.The spatial ability of mathematics is still related to the central executive and visual spatial template,but the number concept of children is not related to the components of working memory.These results suggest that the effect of working memory(voice loop/central executive/visual space template)on mathematical ability(number concept/number operation/number reasoning/space)varies with age.In the second study,working memory training was used to improve children's working memory,and the relationship between working memory and mathematical ability was further investigated.In this study,49 children aged 4-5 years were randomly divided into the training group and the control group(including 24 children in the training group and 25 children in the control group).The training course of the training group includes 12 periods,25 to 30 minutes of group games(2-3 people each time),and homogeneous measurement tools are used before and after the test.The interval between the two periods is about 2 months.The control group did not carry out any training,conventional kindergarten teaching activities.The results showed that :(1)there was no significant difference between the training group and the control group in the pretest scores of the visual-spatial template,while the training group scored significantly higher than the control group in the posttest scores,indicating that the training effectively improved the level of visual-spatial template.(2)for the score of central execution,there was no significant difference between the training group and the control group in the pre-test,and the score of the training group in the post-test was significantly higher than that of the control group,indicating that the training effectively improved the level of central execution.(3)for the score of speech loop,there was no significant difference between the training group and the control group in the pretest,and nosignificant difference between the training group and the control group in the posttest.(4)among the four sub-abilities of mathematics,there was no significant difference in spatial ability between the pre-test training group and the control group,while the post-test training group scored significantly higher than the control group,indicating that working memory training effectively improved spatial ability.However,there is no significant change in number operation,number concept and mathematical reasoning.To sum up,the findings of this study are as follows :(1)working memory of children aged 4-5years significantly improves with age;(2)the developmental characteristics of each component of children's working memory vary with age: the phonetic loop of children's working memory develops rapidly when they are 5 years old,while the central executive develops rapidly when they are 4-5 years old;(3)there is a correlation between the sub-components of children's working memory and the development of sub-abilities of mathematical ability.The central executive system of working memory can predict number concepts,the speech loop of working memory can predict number operations,and the visual-spatial template of working memory can significantly predict spatial ability.The correlation between working memory and math ability changes with age.(4)the working memory training program designed in this study can effectively improve children's working memory ability,and at the same time,it can also promote children's mathematical sub-ability and spatial ability.In conclusion,this study systematically investigated the development level and characteristics of each sub-component of children's working memory between 4 and 5 years old,which enriched the understanding of children's working memory development.Secondly,the study deeply analyzes the correlation between the sub-components of working memory and the four sub-abilities of mathematical ability,which provides a certain research basis for further exploring the influence mechanism of children's working memory on mathematical ability.Finally,the working memory training program designed in this study also has important practical significance for the improvement of children's working memory.