TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ehlert, Antje
A1  - Poltz, Nadine
A1  - Quandte, Sabine
A1  - Kohn-Henkel, Juliane
A1  - Kucian, Karin
A1  - Aster, Michael von
A1  - Esser, Günter
T1  - Taking a closer look: The relationship between pre-school domain general cognition and school mathematics achievement when controlling for intelligence
JF  - Journal of Intelligence
N2  - Intelligence, as well as working memory and attention, affect the acquisition of mathematical competencies. This paper aimed to examine the influence of working memory and attention when taking different mathematical skills into account as a function of children’s intellectual ability. Overall, intelligence, working memory, attention and numerical skills were assessed twice in 1868 German pre-school children (t1, t2) and again at 2nd grade (t3). We defined three intellectual ability groups based on the results of intellectual assessment at t1 and t2. Group comparisons revealed significant differences between the three intellectual ability groups. Over time, children with low intellectual ability showed the lowest achievement in domain-general and numerical and mathematical skills compared to children of average intellectual ability. The highest achievement on the aforementioned variables was found for children of high intellectual ability. Additionally, path modelling revealed that, depending on the intellectual ability, different models of varying complexity could be generated. These models differed with regard to the relevance of the predictors (t2) and the future mathematical skills (t3). Causes and conclusions of these findings are discussed.
KW  - intellectual ability
KW  - intelligence
KW  - pre-school
KW  - mathematical development
KW  - school mathematics
KW  - longitudinal
KW  - numerical skills
KW  - working memory
KW  - attention
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10030070
SN  - 2079-3200
VL  - 10
SP  - 1
EP  - 23
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel, Schweiz
ET  - 3
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schmidt, Hendrikje
A1  - Felisatti, Arianna
A1  - Aster, Michael von
A1  - Wilbert, Jürgen
A1  - Moers, Arpad von
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Neuromuscular diseases affect number representation and processing
BT  - An exploratory study
JF  - Frontiers in psychology / Frontiers Research Foundation
N2  - Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) both are rare genetic neuromuscular diseases with progressive loss of motor ability. The neuromotor developmental course of those diseases is well documented. In contrast, there is only little evidence about characteristics of general and specific cognitive development. In both conditions the final motor outcome is characterized by an inability to move autonomously: children with SMA never accomplish independent motoric exploration of their environment, while children with DMD do but later lose this ability again. These profound differences in developmental pathways might affect cognitive development of SMA vs. DMD children, as cognition is shaped by individual motor experiences. DMD patients show impaired executive functions, working memory, and verbal IQ, whereas only motor ability seems to be impaired in SMA. Advanced cognitive capacity in SMA may serve as a compensatory mechanism for achieving in education, career progression, and social satisfaction. This study aimed to relate differences in basic numerical concepts and arithmetic achievement in SMA and DMD patients to differences in their motor development and resulting sensorimotor and environmental experiences. Horizontal and vertical spatial-numerical associations were explored in SMA/DMD children ranging between 6 and 12 years through the random number generation task. Furthermore, arithmetic skills as well as general cognitive ability were assessed. Groups differed in spatial number processing as well as in arithmetic and domain-general cognitive functions. Children with SMA showed no horizontal and even reversed vertical spatial-numerical associations. Children with DMD on the other hand revealed patterns in spatial numerical associations comparable to healthy developing children. From the embodied Cognition perspective, early sensorimotor experience does play a role in development of mental number representations. However, it remains open whether and how this becomes relevant for the acquisition of higher order cognitive and arithmetic skills.
KW  - spatial-numerical associations
KW  - numerical processing
KW  - mathematics
KW  - child development
KW  - embodied cognition
KW  - neuromuscular disease
KW  - spinal muscular atrophy
KW  - Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.697881
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 12
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -