Sanne H.G. van der Ven

The Development of Executive Functions and Early Mathematics: A Dynamic Relationship.

BACKGROUND The relationship between executive functions and mathematical skills has been studied extensively, but results are inconclusive, and how this relationship evolves longitudinally is largely unknown. AIM The aim was to investigate the factor structure of executive functions in inhibition, shifting, and updating; the longitudinal development of executive functions and mathematics; and the relation between them. SAMPLE A total of 211 children in grade 2 (7-8 years old) from 10 schools in the Netherlands. METHOD Children were followed in grade 1 and 2 of primary education. Executive functions and mathematics were measured four times. The test battery contained multiple tasks for each executive function: Animal stroop, local global, and Simon task for inhibition; Animal Shifting, Trail Making Test in Colours, and Sorting Task for shifting; and Digit Span Backwards, Odd One Out, and Keep Track for updating. The factor structure of executive functions was assessed and relations with mathematics were investigated using growth modelling. RESULTS Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that inhibition and shifting could not be distinguished from each other. Updating was a separate factor, and its development was strongly related to mathematical development while inhibition and shifting did not predict mathematics in the presence of the updating factor. CONCLUSIONS The strong relationship between updating and mathematics suggest that updating skills play a key role in the maths learning process. This makes updating a promising target for future intervention studies.

Executive Functions as Predictors of Math Learning Disabilities

In the past years, an increasing number of studies have investigated executive functions as predictors of individual differences in mathematical abilities. The present longitudinal study was designed to investigate whether the executive functions shifting, inhibition, and working memory differ between low achieving and typically achieving children and whether these executive functions can be seen as precursors to math learning disabilities in children. Furthermore, the predictive value of working memory ability compared to preparatory mathematical abilities was examined. Two classifications were made based on (persistent) mathematical ability in first and second grade. Repeated measures analyses and discriminant analyses were used to investigate which functions predicted group membership best. Group differences in performance were found on one inhibition and three working memory tasks. The working memory tasks predicted math learning disabilities, even over and above the predictive value of preparatory mathematical abilities.

The Structure of Executive Functions in Children: A Closer Examination of Inhibition, Shifting, and Updating.

An increasing number of studies has investigated the latent factor structure of executive functions. Some studies found a three-factor structure of inhibition, shifting, and updating, but others could not replicate this finding. We assumed that the task choices and scoring methods might be responsible for these contradictory findings. Therefore, we selected tasks in which input modality was varied, controlled for baseline speed, and used both speed and accuracy scores, in order to investigate whether a three factor model with inhibition, shifting, and updating could still be replicated. In a group of 211 children, who were tested at the beginning of grade 1, at approximately 6 years of age, and again after 18 months, the best fitting model was not the three-factor model, but instead consisted of an updating factor and a combined inhibition and shifting factor, besides two baseline speed factors (verbal and motor). We argue that these results might indicate that the structural organization of executive functions might be different in children than in adults, but that there might also be an alternative explanation: the distinction in executive functions might not accurately represent cognitive structures but instead be a methodological artefact.

A move in the security measurement stalemate: elo-style ratings to quantify vulnerability

One of the big problems of risk assessment in information security is the quantification of risk-related properties, such as vulnerability. Vulnerability expresses the likelihood that a threat agent acting against an asset will cause impact, for example, the likelihood that an attacker will be able to crack a password or break into a system. This likelihood depends on the capabilities of the threat agent and the strength of the controls in place. In this paper, we provide a framework for estimating these three variables based on the Elo rating used for chess players. This framework re-interprets security from the field of Item Response Theory. By observing the success of threat agents against assets, one can rate the strength of threats and controls, and predict the vulnerability of systems to particular threats. The application of Item Response Theory to the field of risk is new, but analogous to its application to children solving math problems. It provides an innovative and sound way to quantify vulnerability in models of (information) security.

The Voice of Holland: Allograph Production in Written Dutch Past Tense Inflection

ABSTRACTAccording to the Integration of Multiple Patterns hypothesis (IMP; Treiman & Kessler, 2014), the spelling difficulty of a word is affected by the number of cues converging on the correct answer. We tested this hypothesis in children’s regular past tense formation in Dutch. Past tenses are formed by adding either-de or-te to a verb stem. Despite instruction, children often choose the wrong allograph. In a large dataset (227 items, together completed 392,802 times) from an online language program we assessed whether morphophonological and orthographic cues determine differences in difficulty and explain error patterns. Regression analyses established that inflection difficulty was affected by number of converging cues, especially morphophonological and orthographic cues. Error analyses further showed that allograph errors were prominent when graphotactic frequency and especially voicing probability collided with the correct answer. The results match and specify the IMP. Proposals are made to use thi...

Four and Twenty Blackbirds: How Transcoding Ability Mediates the Relationship between Visuospatial Working Memory and Math in a Language with Inversion.

Abstract Writing down spoken number words (transcoding) is an ability that is predictive of math performance and related to working memory ability. We analysed these relationships in a large sample of over 25,000 children, from kindergarten to the end of primary school, who solved transcoding items with a computer adaptive system. Furthermore, we investigated the nature of transcoding difficulty of over 300 two- and three-digit numbers. All data come from a Dutch sample, meaning that transcoding is complicated by decade-unit inversion: 24 is pronounced as ‘four-and-twenty’. Omission to invert the digits of a spoken number when writing it down is an inversion error: the incidence of these declined but did not disappear in later elementary school. Furthermore, transcoding ability mediated the relationship between visuospatial working memory and mathematics performance, a strong effect that declined with age. Inversion error making mediated this same relationship in an inverted U-shaped curve, peaking around grade 2 (8 years old). At the item level, structural characteristics related to inversion and irregular pronunciation of units and decades explained a large part of the variance in item difficulty. We conclude that number transcoding is an important ability to develop mathematical proficiency and discuss the implications of these findings.

Early Executive Function at Age Two Predicts Emergent Mathematics and Literacy at Age Five

Previous work has shown that individual differences in executive function (EF) are predictive of academic skills in preschoolers, kindergartners, and older children. Across studies, EF is a stronger predictor of emergent mathematics than literacy. However, research on EF in children below age three is scarce, and it is currently unknown whether EF, as assessed in toddlerhood, predicts emergent academic skills a few years later. This longitudinal study investigates whether early EF, assessed at two years, predicts (emergent) academic skills, at five years. It examines, furthermore, whether early EF is a significantly stronger predictor of emergent mathematics than of emergent literacy, as has been found in previous work on older children. A sample of 552 children was assessed on various EF and EF-precursor tasks at two years. At age five, these children performed several emergent mathematics and literacy tasks. Structural Equation Modeling was used to investigate the relationships between early EF and academic skills, modeled as latent factors. Results showed that early EF at age two was a significant and relatively strong predictor of both emergent mathematics and literacy at age five, after controlling for receptive vocabulary, parental education, and home language. Predictive relations were significantly stronger for mathematics than literacy, but only when a verbal short-term memory measure was left out as an indicator to the latent early EF construct. These findings show that individual differences in emergent academic skills just prior to entry into the formal education system can be traced back to individual differences in early EF in toddlerhood. In addition, these results highlight the importance of task selection when assessing early EF as a predictor of later outcomes, and call for further studies to elucidate the mechanisms through which individual differences in early EF and precursors to EF come about.

Investigating the Effects of a Robot Peer on L2 Word Learning

Previous research has shown that the presence of a human peer during a learning task can positively affect learning outcomes. The current study aims to find out how second language (L2) vocabulary gains differ depending on whether children are learning by themselves, with a child peer, or with a robot peer. Children were administered an L2 vocabulary training in one of these three conditions. Childrens word learning was measured directly after the training and one week later. Contrary to our expectations, children learning by themselves outperformed children in the peer conditions on one out of four word knowledge tasks. On the other tasks, there were no differences between the three conditions. Suggestions to further study the potential benefits of a robot peer are provided.