Young children who practice visual working memory and reasoning tasks improve their math skills more than children who focus on spatial rotation exercises, according to a large study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.
From: Karolinska Institutet
May 20, 2021 -- The findings support the
notion that training spatial cognition can enhance academic performance and
that when it comes to math, the type of training matters. The study is
published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
"In this large, randomized study we
found that when it comes to enhancing mathematical learning in young children,
the type of cognitive training performed plays a significant role," says
corresponding author Torkel Klingberg, professor in the Department of
Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. "It is an important finding because
it provides strong evidence that cognitive training transfers to an ability
that is different from the one you practiced."
Numerous studies have linked spatial
ability -- that is the capacity to understand and remember dimensional
relations among objects -- to performance in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics. As a result, some employers in these fields use spatial
ability tests to vet candidates during the hiring process. This has also fueled
an interest in spatial cognition training, which focuses on improving one's
ability to memorize and manipulate various shapes and objects and spot patterns
in recurring sequences. Some schools today include spatial exercises as part of
their tutoring.
However, previous studies assessing the
effect of spatial training on academic performance have had mixed results, with
some showing significant improvement and others no effect at all. Thus, there
is a need for large, randomized studies to determine if and to what extent
spatial cognition training actually improves performance.
In this study, more than 17,000 Swedish
schoolchildren between the ages of six and eight completed cognitive training
via an app for either 20 or 33 minutes per day over the course of seven weeks.
In the first week, the children were given identical exercises, after which
they were randomly split into one of five training plans. In all groups,
children spent about half of their time on mathematical number line tasks. The
remaining time was randomly allotted to different proportions of cognitive
training in the form of rotation tasks (2D mental rotation and tangram puzzle),
visual working memory tasks or non-verbal reasoning tasks (see examples below
for details). The children's math performance was tested in the first, fifth
and seventh week.
The researchers found that all groups
improved on mathematical performance, but that reasoning training had the
largest positive impact followed by working memory tasks. Both reasoning and
memory training significantly outperformed rotation training when it came to
mathematical improvement. They also observed that the benefits of cognitive
training could differ threefold between individuals. That could explain
differences in results from some previous studies seeing as individual
characteristics of study participants tend to impact the results.
The researchers note there were some
limitations to the study, including the lack of a passive control group that
would allow for an estimation of the absolute effect size. Also, this study did
not include a group of students who received math training only.
"While it is likely that for any
given test, training on that particular skill is the most time-effective way to
improve test results, our study offers a proof of principle that spatial
cognitive training transfers to academic abilities," Torkel Klingberg
says. "Given the wide range of areas associated with spatial cognition, it
is possible that training transfers to multiple areas and we believe this
should be included in any calculation by teachers and policymakers of how
time-efficient spatial training is relative to training for a particular
test."
The researchers have received funding by
the Swedish Research Council. Torkel Klingberg holds an unpaid position as chief
scientific officer for Cognition Matters, the non-profit foundation that owns
the cognition training app Vektor that was used in this study.
Examples of training tasks in the study
- In
a number line task, a person is asked to identify the right position of a
number on a line bound by a start and an end point. Difficulty is
typically moderated by removing spatial cues, for example ticks on the
number line, and progress to include mathematical problems such as
addition, subtraction and division.
- In
a visual working memory task, a person is asked to recollect visual
objects. In this study, the children reproduced a sequence of dots on a
grid by touching the screen. Difficulty was increased by adding more
items.
- In
a non-verbal reasoning task, a person is asked to complete sequences of
spatial patterns. In this study, the children were asked to choose the
correct image to fill a blank space based on previous sequences.
Difficulty was increased by adding new dimensions such as colors, shapes
and dots.
- In
a rotation task, a person is asked to figure out what an object would look
like if rotated. In this study, the children were asked to rotate a 2D
object to fit various angles. Difficulty was moderated by increasing the
angle of the rotation or the complexity of the object being rotated.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210520133755.htm
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