The relationship of working memory and inhibition with different number knowledge skills in preschool children

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology 2021-03, Vol.203, p.105014-105014, Article 105014
• Main Authors: Traverso, Laura, Tonizzi, Irene, Usai, M. Carmen, Viterbori, Paola
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Executive function; Inhibition; Number knowledge; Number sense; Preschool age; Working memory
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.105014

•The interrelationship between different number knowledge skills was investigated.•The ability to link sets to numerals is the link between informal and formal skills.•Working memory and inhibition differently contribute to number knowledge.•Working memory predicted most components of number knowledge. The purpose of this study was to analyze the contribution of specific executive function (EF) components to different number knowledge skills. A sample of 143 children attending the last year of preschool educational services (Mage = 65.01 months, SD = 3.57) were tested on five number knowledge tasks from the Numerical Intelligence Battery and four EF tasks assessing working memory (WM) and inhibition. First, we examined the interrelationship between different number skills; the results suggested that the relationship between basic informal skills (set comparison and number sequence) and formal skills (seriation of Arabic numerals and number comparison) was mediated by the ability to link sets to numerals. Next, we explored the contribution of WM and inhibition to different number knowledge skills. The structural equation model showed that WM and inhibition were differentially related to specific number knowledge skills. Specifically, WM predicted most components of number knowledge, including the two basic informal skills and the number comparison, whereas inhibition contributed to the seriation of Arabic numerals. The ability to link sets to numerals was predicted only by number sequence, not by EF components.