The spatial contiguity principle is that people learn and perform better when corresponding printed text and graphics are placed near rather than far from each other on the screen or page. This is a well-established design principle in multimedia learning. However, there is insufficient research to establish the appropriate distance between text…

There are consistent correlations between mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety, but the longitudinal relations among these constructs are not well understood nor are sex differences in these relations. To address this gap, mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety were longitudinally assessed for 342 (169 boys) adolescents from…

The current study investigated the relation between spatial ability and children's math performance, as well as the potential mechanisms underlying this relation including numerical magnitude knowledge, understanding of arithmetic operations, and word-problem representation. A sample of 221 Asian sixth graders (age 11, 129 boys) completed a series…

The study tested the hypothesis that there are sex differences in the pathways to mathematical development. Three-hundred and 42 adolescents (169 boys) were assessed in various mathematics areas from arithmetic fluency to algebra across 6th to 9th grade, inclusive, and completed a battery of working memory, spatial, and intelligence measures in…

A pretest-training-posttest design assessed whether training to improve spatial skills also improved mathematics performance in elementary-aged children. First grade students (mean age = 7 years, n = 134) and sixth grade students (mean age = 12 years, n = 124) completed training in 1 of 2 spatial skills--spatial visualization or form…

Preschoolers' repeating patterning knowledge is predictive of their concurrent and later math and numeracy knowledge, but strong experimental evidence is needed to determine if these relations are causal. The purpose of the current study was to examine the causal effects of repeating patterning and numeracy tutoring on repeating patterning,…

The present study longitudinally investigated proportional reasoning abilities in early elementary school before the start of its instruction. Three aims were put forward: (a) distinguishing the different developmental states in young children's understanding of missing-value proportional situations, (b) investigating how children transition…

Elementary school mathematics instruction aims to develop children's understanding of both numerical and spatial mathematics--two key areas of mathematical learning. The present study explored how learning within one of these areas may impact the other. Specifically, it investigated whether a measurement-to-number intervention designed to increase…

Identifying meaningful cognitive and noncognitive predictors of mathematical competence is critical for developing targeted interventions for students struggling with mathematics. Here, 317 students' short-term verbal memory, verbal and visuospatial working memory, complexspatial abilities, intelligence, and mathematics attitudes and anxiety were…

Cognitive, numeracy, and motivational factors have been implicated in math achievement. However, few studies have investigated these factors simultaneously and in middle childhood, limiting our understanding of the relative contributions of these factors during an important developmental period. The current study investigated how one numeracy,…

Previous research has demonstrated that cognitive offloading (i.e., externalizing mental processes) is useful for immediate problem solving. However, long-term effects of cognitive offloading on subsequent problem solving without offloading are remarkably understudied. Our main goal was to investigate the effects of representation control (i.e.,…

Previous research has found that different presentations of the same concept can result in different patterns of transfer to isomorphic instances of that concept. Much of this work has framed these effects in terms of advantages and disadvantages of concreteness or abstractness. We note that mathematics is a richly structured field, with deeply…

Spatial skills have been consistently linked to mathematics achievement in older students and adults, but we know little about their relationship to mathematics achievement in elementary school. This study examined how spatial skills influenced the development of number sense, and subsequent mathematics competency, as students progressed from the…

Does computer programming teach students how to think? Learning to program computers has gained considerable popularity, and educational systems around the world are encouraging students in schools and even children in kindergartens to engage in programming activities. This popularity is based on the claim that learning computer programming…

Many studies in the past decades have focused on low and typical mathematics achievers, yet little is known about children with high mathematics achievement, particularly at a young age. The current study aimed to fill this gap and started from the early work of Krutetskii (1976) as a theoretical lens to study the characteristics of high…