Effect Of Executive Function On Mathematical Ability In Preschool Children

Mathematics is an important educational content in the field of preschool education science.Good mathematical ability can significantly predict children's mathematical learning achievements in primary school and even in higher stages,as well as their learning performance in reading,science and other fields.As a general cognitive ability in the field,executive function has a profound and comprehensive impact on learning ability.Existing empirical evidence regarding the relation between executive function and mathematical ability in preschool children was contradictory and inconsistent.Therefore,it still need more empirical data to conform whether there was a correlation between executive function and preschool children's mathematical ability and the influencing mechanism between them still.This thesis aimed to clarify the causal relationship between executive function and mathematical ability by a crosssectional study and a training study.A total of 134 preschool children aged 3-6 years were selected as subjects in the Study 1,including 78 boys and 56 girls,M = 59.4 months,SD = 10.54.Children were required to complete three core components of executive function(flexible conversion,working memory,and inhibitory control)and Test of Early Math ability-III(TEMAIII).The results showed that after controlling the gender and age of preschool children,working memory,inhibitory control and flexible conversion significantly predicted the mathematical ability of preschool children.Study 2 used the classic experimental design of “pretest-training-immediate posttest”,which included the experimental group and the control group,to reveal the causal relationship between executive function and mathematical ability of preschool children.A total of 48 children aged 4-5 years,including 24 boys and 24 girls,were selected and divided into the experimental group(24 children,12 boys and 12 girls)and the control group(24 children,12 boys and 12 girls).The experimental group was received 15-20 minutes of executive function training four times a week for three weeks,while the control group was received 15-20 minutes of story-telling four times a week for three weeks.In the pretest,children both in the experimental and control groups were tested for executive function and early mathematical ability(manual A).In the posttest,both experimental and control groups were received early math ability tests(manual B,parallel to manual A).The results showed that the improvement in the experimental group was more than that in the control group,indicating that the executive function training significantly improved the mathematical ability of preschool children.In a word,this thesis found that executive function facilitated the preschool children's mathematical ability.This gives an important enlightenment to the education and teaching of mathematics in the pre-school science field,which can integrate the relatively boring daily mathematics education into the small games related to the executive function,so as to improve the basic mathematics ability of preschool children.