ABSTRACT

Young children are sensitive to both numerical and spatial magnitude cues early in development, but many questions remain about how children’s attention to magnitudes relates to their early math achievement. In two studies, we tested three hypotheses related to the flexible attention to magnitudes (FAM) account, which suggests that young children’s flexible attention to both numerical and spatial magnitudes is an important predictor of early math success. In Study 1, we recruited 318 preschool-age children (51.5% female; M_age  = 54.7 months, SD_age = 4.24 months) and assessed them at two time points on a battery of math, executive function, and language measures, including a novel assessment of FAM ability developed for this study. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that young children had specific difficulty flexibly shifting between numerical and spatial magnitudes, that their FAM ability was related to both their executive function and math skills controlling for covariates, and finally that their FAM ability at the first time point was predictive of their math achievement growth over time controlling for executive function skills and covariates. In Study 2, we recruited 157 preschool-age children (47.4% female; M_age  = 53.36 months, SD_age = 7.17 months). We replicated the findings of Study 1 and extended them to account for children’s non-symbolic numerical magnitude discrimination skills. Implications of the results of these studies for early math activities development are discussed.

摘要

幼儿对发育早期的数字和空间量级线索很敏感，但仍然存在许多问题，即儿童对量级的关注如何与他们的早期数学成绩相关。在两项研究中，我们测试了与灵活关注量级（FAM）帐户有关的三个假设，这表明幼儿对数值和空间量级的灵活关注是早期数学成功的重要预测指标。在研究1中，我们招募了318名学龄前儿童（女性为51.5％；M_年龄  = 54.7个月，SD_年龄） = 4.24个月），并在两个时间点对他们进行了一系列数学，执行功能和语言测评，包括针对本研究开发的FAM能力的新颖评估。根据我们的假设，我们发现年幼的孩子在灵活地在数值和空间大小之间转换时有特殊的困难，他们的FAM能力与他们的执行功能和控制协变量的数学技能有关，最后，他们的FAM能力在第一个时间点可以预测他们的数学成绩随着时间的推移而增长，控制执行功能技能和协变量。在研究2中，我们招募了157个学龄前儿童（女性47.4％；M_年龄  = 53.36个月，SD_年龄） = 7.17个月）。我们复制了研究1的发现，并将其扩展为说明儿童的非符号数字量级歧视技能。讨论了这些研究结果对早期数学活动发展的影响。