Executive Functioning as a Predictor of Children's Mathematics Ability: Inhibition, Switching, and Working Memory

“Successful mathematics problem solving is said to involve working memory, the ability to hold relevant information in mind for efficient and effective comprehension [45–47] as well as inhibition, the ability to ignore irrelevant information [48].”

“…with performance on arithmetical computation and problem-solving tasks among children (Bull & Johnston, 1997; Bull, Johnston, & Roy, 1999; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Demetriou, Christou, Spanoudis, & Platsidou, 2002; Espy et al., 2004; Gathercole, Pickering, Knight, & Stegmann, 2004; Jarvis &…”

“For instance, the dimensions WM-ShiftingInhibition (see e.g., Arán Filippetti & Richaud, 2017; Best, Miller, & Jones, 2009; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Dajani & Uddin, 2015; Espy et al., 2004; Fenesy & Lee, 2018; Lehto, Juujärvi, Kooistra, & Pulkkinen, 2003; Messer et al., 2018; Rose, Feldman, &…”

“Other measures tapping the executive attention network, such as Stroop-like measures of interference and performance on inhibitory control tasks, have shown a consistent relationship with arithmetic competency ( Blair & Razza, 2007 ; Bull & Scerif, 2001 ; Espy et al, 2004 ).”

“ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 04 April 2014 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00272 Predicting first-grade mathematics achievement: the contributions of domain-general cognitive abilities, nonverbal number sense, and early number competence”

“Insufficient or poor quality sleep is a significant risk factor for poor academic performance [5–9], as they affect cognitive processes that underlie academic performance [10–16], such as executive functions [17,18], memory [19], and attention [9].”

“…memory system have been examined separately, deficits in the central executive have consistently been implicated in MLD, including difficulty with inhibiting irrelevant information (Passolunghi & Siegel, 2001, 2004) and inflexibility in thinking (Bull, Johnston, & Roy, 1999; Bull & Scerif, 2001).”

“…that WM and IC relate differently to a range of outcomes, including concurrent and subsequent performance in mathematics and reading (e.g., Bull et al. 2008; Bull and Scerif 2001), as well as internalizing (e.g., Rhoades et al. 2009), and externalizing (e.g., Brocki et al. 2010) behavior problems.”

“This might be executive functioning, which Bull and Scerif (2001) found to be related to mathematical ability independent of working memory span.”

“Deak, 2003; Jacques & Zelazo, 2005), or arithmetical skills (e.g. Bull & Scerif, 2001 ).”

“…Posner, 2003), social-emotional development (Carlson, Mandell, & Williams, 2004; Hughes & Ensor, 2006), academic ability (Bull, Espy, & Wiebe, 2008; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Espy et al., 2004; Welsh, Nix, Blair, Bierman, & Nelson, 2010), and general intelligence and verbal ability (Carlson, Moses, &…”

“[6–13] EF are prefrontal brain functions that control thought and behavior.”

“It is increasingly clear that executive functions are fundamental to children’s academic achievement as well (Bull & Scerif, 2001; St. Clair-Thompson & Gathercole, 2006).”

“Bull and Scerif (2001) suggest that evidence of domain-specific inhibition effects could be related to differences in storage capacity across varying types of information (see also Szucs et al. 2013).”

“more verbally laden executive tasks is the potentially stronger relations to outcomes of interest that both more heavily demand verbal skills and utilize a verbal presentation format, such as emergent reading and mathematics achievement (e.g., Bull & Scerif, 2001; Espy et al., 2004; Gathercole & Pickering, 2000).”

“Though some research with older children has found unique effects on math abilities for multiple facets of executive function, inhibitory control remains a significant predictor of children’s math, even when accounting for working memory and cognitive flexibility (Bull and Scerif, 2001).”

“…suggests that there is a significant association between inhibition and working memory, and reading and mathematics abilities (Blair & Razza, 2007; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Christopher et al., 2012; Gernsbacher & Faust, 1991; Protopapas, Archonti, & Skaloumbakas, 2007; St ClairThompson & Gathercole,…”

“In fact, executive function has supplanted IQ as one of the most powerful predictors of academic achievement and educational attainment (Bull and Scerif, 2001; Espy et al., 2004).”

“Several theorists have argued that working memory is more relevant to mathematical skill development than reading, because mathematical problem solving requires holding information in mind and acting on it to arrive at a solution (Bull & Scerif, 2001; see also Noël, 2009).”

“In the word task, children simply had to identify words, whereas the mathematics task demanded calculation skills, which might make particular use of memory skills and inhibition in the form of rejecting potentially irrelevant information or solutions (Blair & Razza, 2007; Bull & Scerif, 2001).”

“(6) Generate stability graph by plotting the probabilities from step (5) over subsample size.”

“Accordingly, research has focused on general cognitive functions like poor working memory span (Bull & Scerif, 2001), disorders of visuospatial functioning (Bull, Johnston, & Roy, 1999), or deficiency in the retrieval of information (e.g., arithmetic facts) from memory (Kaufmann, Lochy, Drexler, &…”

“…such as estimation abilities, appear to be relatively important for developing early numeracy skills (Assel, Landry, Swank, Smith, & Steelman, 2003; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Espy et al., 2004; Keller & Libertus, 2015; Libertus, Feigenson, & Halberda, 2011; Libertus, Feigenson, & Halberda, 2013;…”

“Children’s executive functioning skills are closely associated with mathematics performance (Bull & Scerif, 2001; Clark, Pritchard, & Woodward, 2010; Clark et al., 2013; Espy et al., 2004).”

“…in TD children (Alloway, Gathercole, Adams, Willis, Eaglen & Lamont, 2005; Bayliss, Jarrold, Gunn & Baddeley, 2003; Bayliss et al, 2005; Berg, 2008; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Bull, Espy & Wiebe, 2008; Gathercole & Pickering, 2000; Gathercole, Pickering, Knight & Stegmann, 2004b; Hitch, Towse & Hutton,…”

“Executive functions are critical intermediate phenotypes associated with academic performance, 96 and are better predictors of such than IQ.”

“…Kane and Engle, 2002; Banich, 2009), substantial evidence supports the fact that EFs play an essential role in learning and academic achievement (Bull and Scerif, 2001; St Clair-Thompson and Gathercole, 2006), knowledge acquisition (Blair and Razza, 2007; Danielsson et al., 2010), metacognition…”

“For example, counting, addition problem solving, multidigit operations, and word problem solving all are affected by individual differences in working memory capacity (Barrouillet & Lépine, 2005; Bull & Scerif, 2001; DeStefano & LeFevre, 2004; Geary et al., 1991, 1999; Lépine et al., 2005).”

“…working memory and inhibition) or intelligence in order to measure only unique variance of ANS acuity and math performance, as intelligence, inhibition, and working memory were found to correlate with math performance (Bull and Scerif, 2001; Deary et al., 2007; Friso-van den Bos et al., 2013).”

“Verbal working memory plays a strong role in math skills in 7-year-olds (Bull & Scerif, 2001) and is also a reliable indicator of mathematical difficulties in the first year of formal schooling (Gersten, Jordan, & Flojo, 2005).”

“For example, there is 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…”

“In line with this, executive functions are predictive for literacy acquisition (Alloway et al., 2005; Gathercole, Alloway, Willis, & Adams, 2006), as well as for arithmetic performance (Bull & Scerif, 2001; Geary & Hoard, 2001; Lee et al., 2004).”

“…construct, EF consists of at least three core cognitive processes: inhibitory control, task-switching, and updating working memory representations (Bull & Scerif, 2001; Diamond, 2013; Lehto, Juujärvi, Kooistra, & Pulkkinen, 2003; Miyake et al., 2000; van der Ven, Kroesbergen, Boom, & Leseman,…”

“Learning multiple solution strategies for problems and using other specific strategies that require effortful cognitive skills have been shown to be closely associated with demand on CEFs (e.g., Bull & Scerif, 2001).”

“Despite the weight of literature indicating that working memory is related to mathematic skills, it must be noted that the intricacies of this relationship remain unclear [64,65].”

“That working memory was most predictive of both reading and math achievement, net of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility, corroborates other studies that have observed similar patterns (Allan et al., 2014; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Geary, 2011; Welsh et al., 2010).”

“Cognitive processes that underlie academic performance include executive functions [4–7], memory [8], and attention [9,10].”

“…much more extensively in younger than in older children, we know that EFs are related to emergence and early development of mathematical abilities (Bull & Scerif, 2001; Espy et al., 2004; Gathercole&Pickering,2000;McLean&Hitch,1999),butwedonotknowiftheyarerelatedduringlate…”

“A second measure of attention shifting, the number Stroop task (Bull & Scerif, 2001), was administered in first, second, and third grade.”

“I add to these the contributions of clinical neuropsychology (e.g., Bull & Scerif, 2001; Casey, Pezaris, & Nuttall, 1992; Cirino, Morris, & Morris, 2002; Dehaene, Piazza, Pinel, & Cohen, 2005; Fayol, Barrouillet, & Marinthe, 1998; von Aster, 2000) and behavioral neurogenetics (e.g., Barnes,…”

“Executive Functions and Science 4 There is an established link between working memory and a range of areas of academic learning such as reading (Daneman and Carpenter, 1980), language (Daneman and Merickle, 1996) and mathematics (Bull and Scerif, 2001).”

“In consonance with this, other studies have shown that measures tapping executive attention, such as Stroop-like interference and performance on inhibitory control tasks, also show a consistent relationship with arithmetic competence ( Blair & Razza, 2007 ; Bull, Espy, & Wiebe, 2008 ; Bull & Scerif, 2001 ).”

“There is evidence that shows that poor memory skills characterize children failing to progress normally in different areas of needs [21], [22].”

“For example, inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility were positively correlated with math ability in preadolescents.(8) However, findings on the association between adiposity and academic performance have been inconsistent.”

“The connection between mathematical abilities and inhibition of response or executive functions was previously discussed [21].”

“…of early intervention efforts designed to help young children experiencing reading or mathematics difficulties (e.g., Bull, Espy, & Wiebe, 2008; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Pham & Hasson, 2014; Pickering & Gathercole, 2004; Swanson & Saez, 2003; Swanson, Zheng, & Jerman, 2009; Toll, van der Ven,…”

“Interestingly, these two studies used a numerical Stroop of the same type as the one used by Bull and Scerif (2001), but both resulted in findings that challenge the conclusions of these latter authors.”

“This span was recorded as the maximum number of counts recalled in the correct serial order (Towse and Hitch, 1995; Bull and Scerif, 2001).”

“Direct implication of central executive mechanisms in math learning difficulties has been demonstrated several www.frontiersin.org December 2011 | Volume 2 | Article 368 | 1 times (e.g., Bull and Scerif, 2001; van der Sluis et al., 2004, see review in Raghubar et al., 2010).”

“Yet others link DD to impairment in verbal and visual working memory [6,23,24,31,53,54,77], impairment in spatial processing [60,61], impairment in attentional function [3,30,77], impairment in inhibitory function [5,6,20,77] and impairment in phonological ability [78].”

“…2009), the direct etrieval of mathematical facts (Barrouillet & Lépine, 2005), electing and switching between appropriate solution strateies (Bull & Scerif, 2001; DeStefano & LeFevre, 2004), the o-ordination of multiple steps of complex mathematical probems (Imbo, Vandierendonck, & De Rammelaere,…”

“These findings are consistent with past results indicating that working memory is related to the development of language, spelling, writing, reading comprehension, counting, and mathematics (Bull & Scerif, 2001; Espy et al., 2004).”

“This array of findings has led some to suggest that DD may involve a domain-specific executive function problem (e.g., Bull & Scerif, 2001).”

“EF and (Emergent) Academic Skills in Preschoolers and Kindergartners A wealth of studies on the relationship between EF and emergent academic skills in preschoolers, kindergartners, and older children has shown that EF significantly relates to both mathematics and literacy skills (e.g., Alexander et al., 1993; Bull an…”

“A well-developed working memory and the ability to control attention enables individuals to focus and process information more efficiently, which further supports the retention of knowledge (Ruchkin et al. 2003; Bull & Scerif 2001).”

“…summarized as the unity-but-diversity view and suggests that EF consists of related but separable components (e.g. Anderson et al., 2001; Asato et al., 2006; Bull & Scerif, 2001; Hughes, 1998; Huizinga et al., 2006; Lehto et al., 2003; Miyake et al., 2000; St Clair-Thompson & Gathercole, 2006).”

“Inhibitory problems manifested in other cognitive domains have been also reported in children with lower mathematical ability (Bull & Scerif, 2001).”

“However, there was a trend towards a significant contribution of inhibitory control, which is in line with previous studies demonstrating a link between inhibitory control and math performance (Bull & Lee, 2014; Bull & Scerif, 2001; St Clair-Thompson & Gathercole, 2006).”