Cognitive Predictors of Achievement Growth in Mathematics: A Five Year Longitudinal Study

By David C. Geary. Developmental Psychology, 2011

833 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The study's goal was to identify the beginning of first grade quantitative competencies that predict mathematics achievement start point and growth through fifth grade. Measures of number, counting, and arithmetic competencies were administered in early first grade and used to predict mathematics achievement through fifth (n = 177), while controlling for intelligence, working memory, and processing speed. Multilevel models revealed intelligence, processing speed, and the central executive component of working memory predicted achievement or achievement growth in mathematics and, as a contrast domain, word reading. The phonological loop was uniquely predictive of word reading and the visuospatial sketch pad of mathematics. Early fluency in processing and manipulating numerical set size and Arabic numerals, accurate use of sophisticated counting procedures for solving addition problems, and accuracy in making placements on a mathematical number line were uniquely predictive of mathematics achievement. Use of memory-based processes to solve addition problems predicted mathematics and reading achievement but in different ways. The results identify the early quantitative competencies that uniquely contribute to mathematics learning.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education, Statistics and Probability

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7891bb619341f9269deb8682c2e00524747000ef

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Citations in the corpus

Developmental Changes in Working Memory, Updating, and Math Achievement. (2016, result): “This finding seems inconsistent with the extant findings on the importance of early numeracy skills (De Smedt et al., 2009; Geary, 2011).”
Taking it to the classroom: Number board games as a small group learning activity (2012, background): “These relations are quite strong from kindergarten to fourth grade (Booth & Siegler, 2006; Geary, 2011; Geary, Hoard, Byrd-Craven, Nugent, & Numtee, 2007; Thompson & Siegler, 2010).”
Spatial Skills as a Predictor of First Grade Girls' Use of Higher Level Arithmetic Strategies. (2013, methodology): “Second, decomposition and retrieval draw onmemory based mental procedures that depend on prior knowledge of number facts (Ashcraft & Stazyk, 1981; Geary, 2011), and tend to emerge only after substantial practice solving arithmetic problems (Shrager & Siegler, 1998; Siegler & Jenkins, 1989).”
Does growth rate in spatial ability matter in predicting early arithmetic competence (2017, background): “However, despite a growing body of research into the importance of overall level (Barnes et al., 2011; Geary, 2011; Gunderson, Ramirez, Beilock, & Levine, 2012), little work has been done to explore whether differences in the rate of growth in spatial ability are predictive of subsequent…”
Math talk during informal learning activities in Head Start families (2015, background): “These skills are more challenging for young children, especially those who have difficulties with math, and are predictive of later math learning (Geary, Hoard, & Hamson, 1999; Geary, 2011).”
General and math-specific predictors of sixth-graders’ knowledge of fractions ☆ (2015, background): “The importance of working memory in mathematics is well-established (e.g., Fuchs et al., 2010; Geary, 2011; Geary, Hoard, Byrd-Craven, Nugent, & Numtee, 2007).”
Skills underlying mathematics: The role of executive function in the development of mathematics proficiency (2014, positive): “Both central executive measures of working memory (Geary, 2011), as well as composite EF measures (Clark, Sheffield, Wiebe, & Espy, 2012; LeFevre et al., 2013), have been found to predict improvements in mathematical competency over a year.”
The Relationship between Visuospatial Working Memory and Mathematical Performance in School-Aged Children: a Systematic Review (2019, methodology): “…curriculum Figure recognition test Alloway and Passolunghi 2011 206 7–8 AC-MT, WOND Dot matrix, mazes memory, block recall, odd one out, Mr X, spatial recall Geary 2011 177 7–10 Numerical operations subtest (WIAT) Block recall, mazes memory Meyer et al. 2010 98 7–8 Numerical operations and…”
Building Links Between Early Socioeconomic Status, Cognitive Ability, and Math and Science Achievement (2017, background): “…evidence that executive function in early childhood predicts later mathematics achievement (Bull & Scerif, 2001; Clark, Pritchard, & Woodward, 2010; Geary, 2011; Hackman, Gallop, Evans, & Farah, 2015) and that short-term and working memory mediate the role of verbal IQ in mathematics ability…”
Girls’ Spatial Skills and Arithmetic Strategies in First Grade as Predictors of Fifth-Grade Analytical Math Reasoning (2017, background): “The small numbers of studies that have specifically addressed longterm spatial–math associations have focused primarily on early spatial skills as predictors of later numeric operations (Geary, 2011; Gunderson et al., 2012; LeFevre et al., 2013; Li & Geary, 2013; Nath & Szücs, 2014).”
Language in the prediction of arithmetics in kindergarten and grade 1 (2013, neutral): “It was documented to be correlated with arithmetic performance (Ashcraft & More, 2012; Geary, 2011; Halberda, Mazzocco, & Feigenson, 2008; Price, Palmer, Battista, & Ansari, 2012).”
The Importance of Additive Reasoning in Children’s Mathematical Achievement: A Longitudinal Study (2017, background): “Second, although the number sense perspective may explain variation in computational proficiency (e.g., Booth & Siegler, 2006; Geary, 2011; Geary et al., 2007), it is difficult to understand from this perspective how magnitude estimation allows us to solve problems in a variety of mathematical situa”