The Relationship Between Different Working Memory Domains And Pupils’ Mathematical Abilities: A Longitudinal And Training Study

Working memory is an important cognitive factor,which affects the development of primary school students’ mathematical ability.Previous research results show that different working memory components(verbal and visual-spatial working memory)have different effects on the development of primary school students’ mathematical ability,but the previous evidence is inconsistent in answering whether this effect varies with grade and mathematical field;In addition,previous studies have mostly used correlational designs.We believe that it is necessary to overcome the limitations of previous studies and further explore whether the influence of different working memory components on mathematical ability varies with grades and mathematical domains by combining longitudinal and training design.Based on this,we designed two studies.Among them,study 1 followed 115 students for five years(from grade one to grade five)to explore the changing characteristics of the relationship between different working memory components and mathematical ability from a longitudinal perspective.The experimental design of study 2 combines the four stages of pre-test,training,post test and delayed post test.111 students in the lower(first grade)stage and 78 students in the upper(fifth grade)stage of primary school were selected,and they were all set up into verbal working memory training group,visual-spatial working memory training group and regular teaching group.The first two training groups received 15 days of 15 minutes of daily training based on school teaching,while the regular teaching group only completed school teaching tasks.The results of study 1 found that the visuo-spatial working memory of first grade children significantly affected their mathematical ability;With the growth of grade,the role of verbal working memory gradually shows up,but the effect of visual-spatial working memory continues;Further considering different mathematical domains,it is found that the visual-spatial working memory of lower grades plays a more important role in calculation.With the growth of grades,the effect of verbal working memory on the calculation is slowly emerging;The logical-visuospatial ability is affected by verbal working memory and visuo-spatial working memory in the first grade,and is significantly affected by visuo-spatial working memory in the senior grade.The results of study 2 found that only the visuo-spatial working memory training group among the first grade students showed a transfer effect on the scores of mathematical ability,calculation and logical-visuospatial ability.