Racing dragons and remembering aliens: Benefits of playing number and working memory games on kindergartners' numerical knowledge
Abstract
Sources that contribute to variation in mathematical achievement include both numerical knowledge and general underlying cognitive processing abilities. The current study tested the benefits of tablet‐based training games that targeted each of these areas for improving the mathematical knowledge of kindergarten‐age children. We hypothesized that playing a number‐based game targeting numerical magnitude knowledge would improve children's broader numerical skills. We also hypothesized that the benefits of playing a working memory (WM) game would transfer to children's numerical knowledge given its important underlying role in mathematics achievement. Kindergarteners from diverse backgrounds ( n = 148; 52% girls; M age = 71.87 months) were randomly assigned to either play a number‐based game, a WM game, or a control game on a tablet for 10 sessions. Structural equation modeling was used to model children's learning gains in mathematics and WM across time. Overall, our results suggest that playing the number game improved kindergarten children's numerical knowledge at the latent level, and these improvements remained stable as assessed 1 month later. However, children in the WM group did not improve their numerical knowledge compared to children in the control condition. Playing both the number game and WM game improved children's WM at the latent level. Importantly, the WM group continued to improve their WM for at least a month after playing the games. The results demonstrate that computerized games that target both domain‐specific and domain‐general skills can benefit a broad range of kindergarten‐aged children.
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There is some evidence that such transfer effects are long-term.
“there is some evidence to suggest that such effects are long-term76,77.”
From Near transfer to an unrelated N-back task mediates the effect of N-back working memory training on matrix reasoning (2022) · cites this paper as [76]
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- Authors
- Ramani, G. B., Daubert, E. N., Lin, G. C., Kamarsu, S., Wodzinski, A., & Jaeggi, S. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ramani, Geetha B.
- Jaeggi, Susanne M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Developmental Science
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-10-21
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- e12908-e12908
- ISSN
- 1363-755X (ISSN-L)
- 1467-7687
- OpenAlex
- W2978681674
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 3.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Developmental Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1561447, 1561404)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Keywords
- numerical knowledge, working memory, game-based learning, tablet-based training, kindergarten children, number magnitude, mathematics achievement, domain-specific skills, domain-general skills, game-based intervention, transfer of learning
- MeSH terms
- Achievement, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Learning, Male, Mathematics, Memory, Short-Term, Mental Recall, Schools, Video Games
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