Abstract
The aim of this paper was to examine the roles of working memory, single-step mental addition skills, and strategy use in multi-step mental addition in two independent samples of Chinese elementary students through different approaches to manipulate two dimensions of task characteristics (the primary task). In Study 1, we manipulated strategy types through the dimension of schema automaticity (whether intermediate sums were 10s) and the dimension of working memory load (WML, two steps versus four steps). A hierarchical linear model (HLM) analysis was conducted at case level, strategy level, and individual level. In Study 2, we manipulated task characteristics through schema automaticity (one-time versus two-time regrouping) and the WML (partial versus complete decomposition). A three-level HLM analysis was applied. The general findings of Study 1 and Study 2 suggested that shorter response time on single-step mental addition corresponded to shorter response time on multi-step mental addition. The use of strategies (from easier to more difficult strategies) negatively predicted response time on multi-step mental addition. Easier strategy was associated with shorter response time on multi-step mental addition. Better phonological loop was associated with shorter response time on multi-step mental addition. The findings in both studies highlighted the important role of phonological loop in mental addition in Chinese children, suggesting that the involvement of a specific subcomponent of working memory in mental arithmetic might be subject to linguistic, instructional, and contextual factors.
Highlights
Research in mental arithmetic has received increasing attention in the past four decades (e.g., Groen and Parkman, 1972; Ashcraft, 1992, 1995; Sowder, 1992; Carroll, 1996; LeFevre et al, 2003; Liu et al, 2015)
Mental addition can be affected by individual characteristics such as experiences in arithmetic problem solving, working memory capacities, age, schema automaticity obtained by each individual, and strategy used for problem solving (Zbrodoff and Logan, 1986; Geary et al, 2004; Tronsky, 2005; Imbo et al, 2007; Arnaud et al, 2008)
We recruited Chinese elementary students (Chinese children are anticipated to achieve a high level of proficiency of basic arithmetics in the early years of elementary school; People’s Education Press, 2017) and focused on complex mental addition to explore the roles of working memory, single-step mental addition, and strategy use in multi-step mental addition
Summary
Research in mental arithmetic has received increasing attention in the past four decades (e.g., Groen and Parkman, 1972; Ashcraft, 1992, 1995; Sowder, 1992; Carroll, 1996; LeFevre et al, 2003; Liu et al, 2015). Mental addition can be affected by task characteristics such as the difficulty level of the presented problems, types of problems (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), practice effects, and working memory load (WML) required by the tasks (DeStefano and LeFevre, 2004; Kalaman and LeFevre, 2007; Imbo and Vandierendonck, 2008). We recruited Chinese elementary students (Chinese children are anticipated to achieve a high level of proficiency of basic arithmetics in the early years of elementary school; People’s Education Press, 2017) and focused on complex mental addition to explore the roles of working memory, single-step mental addition, and strategy use (manipulated by schema automaticity and WML) in multi-step mental addition
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