Executive function and mathematics in preschool children: Training and transfer effects

Identifying the underpinnings of mathematics proficiency is relevant for all societies. A growing literature supports a relation between executive function (EF) and mathematics across a wide age range, but causal links are not well understood. In the current study, typically developing preschool children (N = 104) were randomly assigned to one of four training conditions: EF, Number, EF + Number, or an active Control. They participated in three brief training sessions and pretest and posttest sessions measuring EF and mathematics skills. EF training improved EF skills on a task similar to the training but did not extend to an untrained EF task. In addition, the EF training improved number skills but not general mathematics skills. The EF + Number training improved number and general mathematics skills but not EF skills. The EF + Number training did not yield significantly greater benefits for EF and mathematics beyond other training conditions. Finally, differential training effects emerged, such that children with lower pretest EF skills had greater EF benefits on only the trained EF skill. In addition, children from lower versus higher socioeconomic households had greater gains in numerical skills following EF training. No training condition improved verbal knowledge, suggesting that results were specific to the targeted skills. These results extend prior findings on the effectiveness of improving EF and mathematical skills through short-term trainings during early childhood.

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Self-distancing (i.e., creating mental distance between the self and a stimulus by adopting a less egocentric perspective) has been studied as a way to improve adolescents' and adults' emotion regulation. These studies instruct adolescents and adults to use visual imagery or language to create distance from the self before engaging in self-regulation tasks and when thinking about past and future events. For example, adults are asked to recall past, negative emotional experiences from either a first-person perspective (no distance) or a third-person perspective (self-distanced). These studies show that a self-distanced perspective allows adults to cope more adaptively when recalling negative feelings. However, the self-distancing paradigm used with adults was not developmentally appropriate for young children. This modified self-distancing paradigm involves instructing children to think about their thoughts, feelings, and actions from different perspectives that vary in their distance from the self while completing a self-regulation task. The paradigm involves randomly assigning children to use one of three perspectives: self-immersed, third-person, or exemplar. In the self-immersed condition, children are asked to think about themselves using the first-person perspective (e.g., "How am I feeling?") and no distance is created from the self. In the third-person condition, children are asked to create distance from the self by using the third-person perspective (e.g., "How is [child's name] feeling?"). In the exemplar condition, the greatest distance from the self is created by asking children to pretend to be a media character and to think about that character's thoughts and feelings (e.g., "How is Batman feeling?"). Studies using the self-distancing paradigm with 4-6-year-olds have found that as the amount of distance from the self increases (self-immersed < third-person < exemplar), children perform better on self-regulation tasks. These findings suggest that the strategies implemented in the self-distancing protocol may be useful to include in self-regulation interventions for young children.

Executive function and magnitude skills in preschool children

Executive function (EF) has been highlighted as a potentially important factor for mathematical understanding. The relation has been well established in school-aged children but has been less explored at younger ages. The current study investigated the relation between EF and mathematics in preschool-aged children. Participants were 142 typically developing 3- and 4-year-olds. Controlling for verbal ability, a significant positive correlation was found between EF and general math abilities in this age group. Importantly, we further examined this relation causally by varying the EF load on a magnitude comparison task. Results suggested a developmental pattern where 3-year-olds' performance on the magnitude comparison task was worst when EF was taxed the most. Conversely, 4-year-olds performed well on the magnitude task despite varying EF demands, suggesting that EF might play a critical role in the development of math concepts.