Starr Ariel, Leib Elena R, Younger Jessica W, Uncapher Melina R, Bunge Silvia A
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA.
Dev Sci. 2023 May;26(3):e13320. doi: 10.1111/desc.13320. Epub 2022 Sep 6.
Relational thinking, the ability to represent abstract, generalizable relations, is a core component of reasoning and human cognition. Relational thinking contributes to fluid reasoning and academic achievement, particularly in the domain of math. However, due to the complex nature of many fluid reasoning tasks, it has been difficult to determine the degree to which relational thinking has a separable role from the cognitive processes collectively known as executive functions (EFs). Here, we used a simplified reasoning task to better understand how relational thinking contributes to math achievement in a large, diverse sample of elementary and middle school students (N = 942). Students also performed a set of ten adaptive EF assessments, as well as tests of math fluency and fraction magnitude comparison. We found that relational thinking was significantly correlated with each of the three EF composite scores previously derived from this dataset, albeit no more strongly than they were with each other. Further, relational thinking predicted unique variance in students' math fluency and fraction magnitude comparison scores over and above the three EF composites. Thus, we propose that relational thinking be considered an EF in its own right as one of the core, mid-level cognitive abilities that supports cognition and goal-directed behavior. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Relational thinking, the process of identifying and integrating relations, develops over childhood and is central to reasoning. We collected data from nearly 1000 elementary and middle schoolers on a test of relational thinking, ten standard executive function tasks, and two math tests. Relational thinking predicts unique variance in math achievement not accounted for by canonical EFs throughout middle childhood. We propose that relational thinking should be conceptualized as a core executive function that supports cognitive development and learning.
关系性思维，即表征抽象、可概括关系的能力，是推理和人类认知的核心组成部分。关系性思维有助于流畅推理和学业成就，尤其是在数学领域。然而，由于许多流畅推理任务的复杂性，很难确定关系性思维与统称为执行功能（EFs）的认知过程相比，在多大程度上具有可分离的作用。在此，我们使用了一个简化的推理任务，以便在一个由大量不同的中小学生组成的样本（N = 942）中，更好地理解关系性思维是如何促进数学成绩的。学生们还进行了一组十项适应性执行功能评估，以及数学流畅性测试和分数大小比较测试。我们发现，关系性思维与先前从该数据集中得出的三个执行功能综合得分中的每一个都显著相关，尽管其相关性并不比这些综合得分之间的相关性更强。此外，关系性思维在三个执行功能综合得分之外，还预测了学生数学流畅性和分数大小比较得分的独特方差。因此，我们建议将关系性思维本身视为一种执行功能，作为支持认知和目标导向行为的核心中级认知能力之一。研究亮点：关系性思维，即识别和整合关系的过程，在儿童时期发展起来，是推理的核心。我们收集了近1000名中小学生在关系性思维测试、十项标准执行功能任务和两项数学测试中的数据。在整个童年中期，关系性思维预测了数学成就中未被典型执行功能所解释的独特方差。我们建议将关系性思维概念化为一种支持认知发展和学习的核心执行功能。
