Title	Association between attention, working memory and addition performance in preschool and early-school children
Authors	Cheung, Kam Yee Lau, Hiu Wing Lui, Tsz Man Mak, Hiu Ching Yuen, Pui Lam
Advisors	Lee, Clara
Degree	Undergraduate
Issue Date	2018
Absctract	Addition is a very important ability for children’s academic achievement. This study examined the associations between attention, working memory, and simple addition in preschool and early-school children. A sample of 30 K3 and 22 Grade one students were recruited and their performance on sustained attention, and verbal and visuospatial working memory tests were measured. Preschool children were also asked to perform single-digit addition, while early-school children were required to perform both single-digit and double-digit additions. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were computed between sustained attention and addition, and between working memory and addition in preschool and early-school children separately due to their attention and working memory are at different developmental stages. Results showed that there were no significant correlations between sustained attention and addition or between working memory and addition in early-school group. However, the correlations between verbal working memory and single-digit addition with a sum greater than ten, and between sustained attention and single-digit addition with a sum greater than ten were found to be significant in the preschool group. Since sustained attention was also found to be significantly correlated with verbal working memory in preschool children, a partial correlation on single-digit addition with a sum greater than ten was performed. The findings of this study suggested that only verbal working memory was partially correlated with single-digit addition with sum greater than ten in preschool children after controlling the effect of sustained attention.
Subjects	Attention in children Short-term memory Mathematical ability in children Child development
Publisher	Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Rights	All rights reserved.