School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States of America.
Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Jul 25;19(7):e0304211. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304211. eCollection 2024.
Substantial progress has been made in understanding the neurocognitive underpinnings of learning math. Building on this work, it has been hypothesized that declarative and procedural memory, two domain-general learning and memory systems, play important roles in acquiring math skills. In a longitudinal study, we tested whether in fact declarative and procedural memory predict children's math skills during elementary school years. A sample of 109 children was tested across grades 2, 3 and 4. Linear mixed-effects regression and structural equation modeling revealed the following. First, learning in declarative but not procedural memory was associated with math skills within each grade. Second, declarative but not procedural memory in each grade was related to math skills in all later grades (e.g., declarative memory in grade 2 was related to math skills in grade 4). Sensitivity analyses showed that the pattern of results was robust, except for the longitudinal prediction of later math skills when accounting for stable inter-individual differences via the inclusion of random intercepts. Our findings highlight the foundational role of early domain-general learning and memory in children's acquisition of math.
在理解学习数学的神经认知基础方面已经取得了重大进展。在此基础上，人们假设陈述性记忆和程序性记忆这两种领域一般性的学习和记忆系统在获得数学技能方面发挥着重要作用。在一项纵向研究中，我们实际上测试了陈述性记忆和程序性记忆是否可以预测儿童在小学阶段的数学技能。对 109 名儿童进行了横跨 2、3 和 4 年级的测试。线性混合效应回归和结构方程模型揭示了以下结果。首先，在每个年级内，陈述性记忆中的学习与数学技能相关，而程序性记忆中的学习则没有。其次，在每个年级中的陈述性记忆都与所有后续年级的数学技能相关（例如，2 年级的陈述性记忆与 4 年级的数学技能相关）。敏感性分析表明，除了通过包含随机截距来考虑个体间稳定差异而对后期数学技能进行纵向预测的结果之外，该结果模式是稳健的。我们的研究结果强调了早期领域一般性学习和记忆在儿童获得数学技能方面的基础作用。
