Browsing by Author "Geier, Anna"

Objectives. On the basis of previous research, working memory and many other cognitive abilities are associated with mathematical skills. By evaluating working memory and other cognitive skills, it might be possible to predict, which children will have problems in learning mathematics. Especially in kindergarten proper assessment methods are needed, with which the working memory and other cognitive abilities of children could be evaluated. In this research we examined, what kind of relationship do tasks that assess working memory, flexible intelligence, Working Memory Rating Scale and Taitokysely have with early mathematical skills. In addition, the objective of this study was to evaluate whether questionnaires can produce similar knowledge, as tasks that evaluate working memory. Methods. This study is part of joint research project of the universities of Turku and Helsinki, the Early Rehearsal of Working Memory. The children who participated in the study were 6-7 years old (n=50). The working memory was assessed with AWMA tasks, and mathematical skills were assessed with lukujonotaidot- and Banuca tests. Flexible intelligence was assessed with Raven’s matrices. The kindergarten teachers completed a Working Memory Rating Scale (WMRS) and a Taitokysely of each child. The associations between the variables were assessed with correlation coefficients, linear regression analysis and regression commonality analysis. Results and Conclusions. WMRS, Taitokysely and part of the tasks, that were used to evaluate working memory were associated with mathematical skills. Most of the explained variance is common to the predictors, but the WMRS and the tasks that were used to evaluate passive visuospatial working memory were the best individual predictors. On the basis of this research, especially these methods would be good when evaluating children’s working memory, problems of working memory and mathematical skills. Questionnaires and tasks were both able to produce knowledge about working memory and mathematics.