Older news items (pre-2010) brought over from the old website
Factors influencing math performance
Early math skills best predict school success
A review of data from six studies of close to 36,000 preschoolers has revealed that the single most important factor in predicting later academic achievement is that children begin school with a mastery of early math and literacy concepts. This was true even if they have various social and emotional problems. Children's attention-related skills also mattered. The very strongest predictor of future academic success was beginning school with a knowledge of numbers, number order and other rudimentary math concepts. The study controlled for IQ, family income, gender, temperament, type of previous educational experience, and whether children came from single or two parent families. Mastery of early math skills predicted future reading achievement as well as future math achievement. The opposite was not true.
Duncan, G.J. et al. 2007. School Readiness and Later Achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43 (6), 1428–1446.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071112182442.htm
Gesturing helps grade-schoolers solve math problems
Two studies of children in late third and early fourth grade, who made mistakes in solving math problems, have found that children told to move their hands when explaining how they’d solve a problem were four times as likely as kids given no instructions to manually express correct new ways to solve problems. Even though they didn’t give the right answer, their gestures revealed an implicit knowledge of mathematical ideas, and the second study showed that gesturing set them up to benefit from subsequent instruction. The findings extend previous research that body movement not only helps people to express things they may not be able to verbally articulate, but actually to think better.
Broaders, S.C., Cook, S.W., Mitchell, Z. & Goldin-Meadow, S. 2007. Making Children Gesture Brings Out Implicit Knowledge and Leads to Learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136 (4).
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/apa-ghg102907.php
Young children can add and subtract without arithmetic
We knew infants can judge simple mathematical relationships, such as being able to tell when there are more objects in one group compared to another. Now a new study shows that children can apply that ability to Arabic numerals after learning to count but before they learned to add and subtract. When given such problems as, "Sarah has 15 candies and she gets 19 more; John has 51 candies. Who has more?", five- and six-year-old children answered correctly 64—73% of the time. The research suggests ways to improve children’s engagement with formal arithmetic.
Gilmore, C.K., McCarthy, S.E. & Spelke, E.S. 2007. Symbolic arithmetic knowledge without instruction. Nature, 447, 589-591.
Executive function as important as IQ for math success
A study of 141 preschoolers from low-income homes has found that a child whose IQ and executive functioning were both above average was three times more likely to succeed in math than a child who simply had a high IQ. The parts of executive function that appear to be particularly linked to math ability in preschoolers are working memory and inhibitory control. In this context, working memory may be thought of as the ability to keep information or rules in mind while performing mental tasks. Inhibitory control is the ability to halt automatic impulses and focus on the problem at hand. Inhibitory control was also important for reading ability. The finding offers the hope that training to improve executive function will improve academic performance
Blair, C. & Razza, R.P. 2007. Relating Effortful Control, Executive Function, and False Belief Understanding to Emerging Math and Literacy Ability in Kindergarten. Child Development, 78 (2), 647–663.
Language affects how math is done?
A comparison of activity in the brains of Chinese and English participants doing simple arithmetic using Arabic numbers has found that, although both groups utilised the inferior parietal cortex (an area connected to quantity representation and reading), English speakers displayed more activity in the language processing area of the brain, while Chinese speakers used the area of the brain that deals with processing visual information. There was no significant difference in the reaction time and accuracy of the Chinese and English-speaking volunteers. However, an earlier study comparing Canadian and Chinese students found that the latter were better at complex maths. The findings suggest that our native language, or different teaching methods, may influence the way we solve equations.
Tang, Y. et al. 2006. Arithmetic processing in the brain shaped by cultures. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Published online before print June 30, 2006.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9422?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn9422
Preschool storytelling ability linked to later mathematical ability
A new study suggests that preschool children's early storytelling abilities are predictive of their mathematical ability two years later. In the study, three-and four-year-old children were shown a book that contained only pictures and were asked to tell the story to a puppet. Their abilities were measured in a variety of ways. Two years later, the children were given a number of tests of academic achievement, including a test of mathematical achievement. It was found was that those children who scored highly on the mathematics test had also scored highly on certain measures of their storytelling ability two years earlier. "Most strongly predictive of children's mathematical performance was their ability to relate all the different events in the story, to shift clearly from the actions of one character to another, and to adopt the perspective of different characters and talk about what they were feeling or thinking." This study suggests that building strong storytelling skills early in the preschool years may be helpful in preparing children for learning mathematics when they enter school.
O’Neill, D.K. et al. 2004. Preschool children's narratives and performance on the Peabody Individualized Achievement Test - Revised: Evidence of a relation between early narrative and later mathematical ability. First Language, 24 (2), 149-184.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-07/nsae-url072904.php
Factors impairing math ability
Gender gap in math is culture-based
Data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Programme for International Student Assessment, representing 493,495 students ages 14-16 from 69 countries, have revealed only very small gender differences overall, but marked variation when nations are compared. For example, there are more girls in the top tier in countries such as Iceland, Thailand, and the United Kingdom–and even in certain U.S. populations, such as Asian-Americans. However, despite overall similarities in math skills, boys felt significantly more confident in their abilities than girls did and were more motivated to do well. Furthermore, although some studies have found more males than females scoring above the 95th or 99th percentile, this gender gap has significantly narrowed over time in the U.S. and is not found among some ethnic groups and in some nations. Greater male variability with respect to mathematics, where it exists, correlates with several measures of gender inequality.
Hyde, J. S., & Mertz, J. E. (2009). Gender, culture, and mathematics performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(22), 8801-8807.
Else-Quest, N.M., Hyde, J.S. & Linn, M.C. 2010. Cross-national patterns of gender differences in mathematics: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136(1), 103-127.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/math-quiz-why-do-men-predominate
http://www.physorg.com/news181915640.html
Iron deficiency may affect maths achievement in children and teens
A U.S. national study of 5,398 children aged 6 to 16 found iron deficiency in 3% of the children overall, and 8.7% of girls aged 12 to 16 (7% without anemia). Average math scores for iron-deficient children with or without anemia were about six points lower than those with normal iron levels. Among adolescent girls, the difference in scores was more than eight points. Previous research has linked iron-deficiency anemia with lower developmental test scores in young children, but there is less information on older children and on iron deficiency without anemia. It is suggested that this finding may help explain why the female superiority in maths at younger ages reverses itself in adolescence.
Halterman, J.S., Kaczorowski, J.M., Aligne, C.A., Auinger, P. & Szilagyi, P.G. 2001. Iron Deficiency and Cognitive Achievement Among School-Aged Children and Adolescents in the United States. Pediatrics, 107 (6), 1381-1386.
Math Anxiety
Positive stereotypes can offset negative stereotype effect
A number of studies have now shown that negative stereotypes can impair cognitive performance, mainly through adding to working memory load. A new study has now shown that this effect can be mitigated by the activation of a positive stereotype. The research takes advantage of the fact that we all belong to several social groups. In this case, the relevant groups were ‘female’ and ‘college student’. As usual, when (subtly) reminded of negative stereotypes for women and math, women performed worse. The interesting thing was that this didn’t happen if women were also made aware that college students performed better at math than non-college students. Moreover, this was reflected in working memory capacity. It seems that, when both a positive and a negative stereotype are offered, people will tend to choose the positive stereotype, and the effects of this will cancel out the negative stereotype. It’s also worth noting how easily these stereotypes are activated: effects could be manipulated simply by subtly changing demographic questions asked before the test (and it is not uncommon that test-takers are first required to answer some demographic questions).
Rydell, R.J., McConnell, A.R. & Beilock, S.L. 2009. Multiple social identities and stereotype threat: Imbalance, accessibility, and working memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 949-966.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/iu-pob050109.php
Stereotype-induced math anxiety robs women's working memory
Another study finds evidence that being told men are better at mathematics undermines women's math performance, and extends it by demonstrating that the anxiety induced by the stereotype mainly reduced the verbal part of working memory, and that this carried over to subsequent (non-math-related) tasks. The accuracy of women exposed to the stereotype was reduced from nearly 90% in a pretest to about 80% after being told men do better in mathematics.
Beilock, S.L., Rydell, R.J. & McConnell, A.R. 2007. Stereotype threat and working memory: Mechanisms, alleviation, and spillover. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136(2), 256-276.
http://www.physorg.com/news99239898.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uoc-sma052107.php
Implicit stereotypes and gender identification may affect female math performance
Relatedly, another study has come out showing that women enrolled in an introductory calculus course who possessed strong implicit gender stereotypes, (for example, automatically associating "male" more than "female" with math ability and math professions) and were likely to identify themselves as feminine, performed worse relative to their female counterparts who did not possess such stereotypes and who were less likely to identify with traditionally female characteristics. Strikingly, a majority of the women participating in the study explicitly expressed disagreement with the idea that men have superior math ability, suggesting that even when consciously disavowing stereotypes, female math students are still susceptible to negative perceptions of their ability.
Kiefer, A.K., & Sekaquaptewa, D. 2007. Implicit stereotypes, gender identification, and math performance: a prospective study of female math students. Psychological Science, 18(1), 13-18.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/afps-isa012407.php
Women's math performance affected by theories on sex differences
In a salutary reminder to all researchers into gender and race differences, researchers found that women who received a genetic explanation for female underachievement in math or were reminded of the stereotype about female math underachievement, performed more poorly on math tests than those who received an experiential explanation (such as math teachers treating boys preferentially during the first years of math education) or were led to believe there are no sex differences in math.
Dar-Nimrod, I. & Heine, S.J. 2006. Exposure to Scientific Theories Affects Women's Math Performance. Science, 314 (5798), 435.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/uobc-wmp101306.php
Anxiety over maths blocks learning
The so-called "maths block" is notorious - why do we have such a term? Do we talk about a "geography block", or a "physics block"? But we do talk of a reading block. Perhaps the reason for both is the same.
The amount of information you can work with at one time has clear limits, defined by your working memory capacity. When we are anxious, part of our working memory is taken up with our awareness of these fears and worries, leaving less capacity available for processing (which is why students who are very anxious during exams usually perform well below their capabilities). Processes such as reading and working with numbers are very sensitive to working memory capacity because they place such demands on it.
A recently reported study by Mark H. Ashcraft and Elizabeth P. Kirk, both psychologists at Cleveland (Ohio) State University, provides the first solid evidence that, indeed, math-anxious people have working memory problems as they do maths.
Ashcraft, M. H., & Kirk, E. P. (2001). The relationships among working memory, math anxiety, and performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130(2), 224–237. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.2.224
Neural substrate of mathematics
Where math takes place normally and in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
An imaging study involving 21 children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder confirms the importance of the left parietal area for mathematical tasks. Children with FASD are particularly impaired in mathematical ability. Brain activity patterns also revealed that the involvement of regions in the left cerebellum and the brainstem in math processing may be specific to children with FASD.
Lebel, C., Rasmussen, C., Wyper, K., Andrew, G., & Beaulieu, C. (2009). Brain Microstructure Is Related to Math Ability in Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 9999(9999). doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2009.01097.x.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/ace-ema111209.php
Are language and math processed separately by the brain?
Challenging the view that mathematics and language use common cognitive resources, a recent study provides support for the view that the functions of math and language are separate in the human brain. The study involved three men with severe agrammatic aphasia, which means they're unable to understand or form sentences due to brain damage. They didn't understand a reversible sentence - for example, the difference between 'John kissed Kate' and 'Kate kissed John', but they were able to understand that 5 - 2 is different from 2 – 5 (but not when it was expressed in words: two minus five). The researcher takes the results as a demonstration that we can have cognition without language, however, because the men were all normal until they sustained brain damage, it doesn’t answer the question of whether sophisticated cognition could arise without language.
Varley, R.A., Klessinger, N.J.C., Romanowski, C.A.J. & Siegal, M. 2005. Agrammatic but numerate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102 (9), 3519-3524.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1427167,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4265763.stm
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050214/full/050214-3.html