Can you count on what you see? Numerosity extraction and its association with verbal number skills in early childhood.

In young children in particular, processing numerical magnitudes is influenced by spatial characteristics of those magnitudes (e.g., extent).

Characterizing Creative Thinking and Creative Achievements in Relation to Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Previous research on ADHD and ASD has mainly focused on the deficits associated with these conditions, but there is also evidence for strengths. Unfortunately, our understanding of potential strengths in neurodevelopmental conditions is limited. One particular strength, creativity, has been associated with both ADHD and ASD.

Prepulse Inhibition and P50 Suppression in Relation to Creativity and Attention: Dispersed Attention Beneficial to Quantitative but Not Qualitative Measures of Divergent Thinking.

The current study investigated whether lower sensory and sensorimotor gating were related to higher levels of creativity and/or attentional difficulties in a natural population of primary school children (9- to 13-year-old). Gating abilities were measured with P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex (PPI). The final sample included 65 participants in the P50 analyses and 37 participants in the PPI analyses.

Predicting Math Ability Using Working Memory, Number Sense, and Neurophysiology in Children and Adults.

Previous work has shown relations between domain-general processes, domain-specific processes, and mathematical ability. However, the underlying neurophysiological effects of mathematical ability are less clear. Recent evidence highlighted the potential role of beta oscillations in mathematical ability.

The cognitive profiles for different samples of mathematical learning difficulties and their similarity to typical development: Evidence from a longitudinal study.

Several cognitive deficits have been suggested to induce mathematical learning difficulties (MLD), but it is unclear whether the cognitive profile for all children with MLD is the same and to what extent it differs from typically developing (TD) children. This study investigated whether such a profile could be distinguished when cognitive skills and math performance are compared between TD children and children with MLD. This was accomplished by employing two-way repeated-measures analyses of covariance in 276 10-year-old participants (60 with MLD) from fourth and fifth grades.

Personalized brain stimulation for effective neurointervention across participants.

Accumulating evidence from human-based research has highlighted that the prevalent one-size-fits-all approach for neural and behavioral interventions is inefficient. This approach can benefit one individual, but be ineffective or even detrimental for another. Studying the efficacy of the large range of different parameters for different individuals is costly, time-consuming and requires a large sample size that makes such research impractical and hinders effective interventions.

Creativity in mathematics performance: The role of divergent and convergent thinking.

Background: Creativity requires both divergent and convergent thinking. Previous research established that divergent thinking relates to mathematics performance, but generally ignored the role of convergent thinking and, hence, leaves it unclear how both might interact when children work on mathematical tasks. This study addressed this paucity in the research literature, with the goal of improving our understanding of the role of creative thinking in primary school mathematics.

How Cognitive Strengths Compensate Weaknesses Related to Specific Learning Difficulties in Fourth-Grade Children.

The goal of the present study was to investigate whether children's cognitive strengths can compensate the accompanied weaknesses related to their specific learning difficulties. A Bayesian multigroup mediation SEM analysis in 281 fourth-grade children identified a cognitive compensatory mechanism in children with mathematical learning difficulties ( = 36): Children with weak number sense, but strong rapid naming performed slightly better on mathematics compared to peers with weak rapid naming. In contrast, a compensatory mechanism was not identified for children with a comorbid mathematical and reading difficulty ( = 16).

The Influence of Situational Cues on Children's Creativity in an Alternative Uses Task and the Moderating Effect of Selective Attention.

Taking a perception-action perspective, we investigated how the presence of different real objects in children's immediate situation affected their creativity and whether this effect was moderated by their selective attention. Seventy children between ages 9 and 12 years old participated. Verbal responses on a visual Alternative Uses Task with a low stimulus and high stimulus condition were coded on fluency, flexibility, and originality.

The relevance of subtyping children with mathematical learning disabilities.

Background: Profiles of mathematical learning disability (MLD) have been conceptualized in the literature, but empirical evidence to support them based on academic and cognitive characteristics is lacking.

Aims: We examined whether profiles of mathematics performance can empirically be identified and whether the identified profiles also differ in underlying cognitive skills.

Methods And Procedures: Latent profile analysis in 281 fourth-graders.

The Contribution of Executive Functions in Predicting Mathematical Creativity in Typical Elementary School Classes: A Twofold Role for Updating.

The goal of the current study was to investigate the role of executive functions in mathematical creativity. The sample included 278 primary school children (ages 8-13). Two models were compared: the starting model tested whether executive functions (shifting, updating, and inhibition), domain-general creativity, and mathematical ability directly predicted mathematical creativity.

The Use of Local and Global Ordering Strategies in Number Line Estimation in Early Childhood.

A lot of research has been devoted to number line estimation in primary school. However, less is known about the early onset of number line estimation before children enter formal education. We propose that ordering strategies are building blocks of number line estimation in early childhood.

On the Difference Between Numerosity Processing and Number Processing.

The ANS theory on the processing of non-symbolic numerosities and the ANS mapping account on the processing of symbolic numbers have been the most popular theories on numerosity and number processing, respectively, in the last 20 years. Recently, both the ANS theory and the ANS mapping account have been questioned. In the current study, we examined two main assumptions of both the ANS theory and the ANS mapping account.

Counting and Number Line Trainings in Kindergarten: Effects on Arithmetic Performance and Number Sense.

Children's early numerical capacities form the building blocks for later arithmetic proficiency. Linear number placements and counting skills are indicative of mapping, as an important precursor to arithmetic skills, and have been suggested to be of vital importance to arithmetic development. The current study investigated whether fostering mapping skills is more efficient through a counting or a number line training program.

Cognitive predictors of children's development in mathematics achievement: A latent growth modeling approach.

Research has identified various domain-general and domain-specific cognitive abilities as predictors of children's individual differences in mathematics achievement. However, research into the predictors of children's individual growth rates, namely between-person differences in within-person change in mathematics achievement is scarce. We assessed 334 children's domain-general and mathematics-specific early cognitive abilities and their general mathematics achievement longitudinally across four time-points within the first and second grades of primary school.

Coaching positively influences the effects of working memory training on visual working memory as well as mathematical ability.

The goal of the present study was to test whether the amount of coaching influenced the results of working memory training on both visual and verbal working memory. Additionally, the effects of the working memory training on the amount of progress after specific training in mathematics were evaluated. In this study, 23 children between 9 and 12 years of age with both attentional and mathematical difficulties participated in a working memory training program with a high amount of coaching, while another 25 children received no working memory training.

An Embodiment Perspective on Number-Space Mapping in 3.5-Year-Old Dutch Children.

Previous research suggests that block adding, subtracting and counting direction are early forms of number-space mapping. In this study, an embodiment perspective on these skills was taken. Embodiment theory assumes that cognition emerges through sensory-motor interaction with the environment.

Foreign language reading and spelling in gifted students with dyslexia in secondary education.

A few studies suggest that gifted children with dyslexia have better literacy skills than averagely intelligent children with dyslexia. This finding aligns with the hypothesis that giftedness-related factors provide compensation for poor reading. The present study investigated whether, as in the native language (NL), the level of foreign language (FL) literacy of gifted students with dyslexia is higher than the literacy level of averagely intelligent students with dyslexia and whether this difference can be accounted for by the difference in their NL literacy level.

Self-concept mediates the relation between achievement and emotions in mathematics.

Background: Mathematics achievement is related to positive and negative emotions. Pekrun's control-value theory of achievement emotions suggests that students' self-concept (i.e.

Limited Near and Far Transfer Effects of Jungle Memory Working Memory Training on Learning Mathematics in Children with Attentional and Mathematical Difficulties.

The goal of this randomized controlled trial was to investigate whether Jungle Memory working memory training (JM) affects performance on working memory tasks, performance in mathematics and gains made on a mathematics training (MT) in school aged children between 9-12 years old ( = 64) with both difficulties in mathematics, as well as attention and working memory. Children were randomly assigned to three groups and were trained in two periods: (1) JM first, followed by MT, (2) MT first, followed by JM, and (3) a control group that received MT only. Bayesian analyses showed possible short term effects of JM on near transfer measures of verbal working memory, but none on visual working memory.

Shared and Unique Risk Factors Underlying Mathematical Disability and Reading and Spelling Disability.

High comorbidity rates have been reported between mathematical learning disabilities (MD) and reading and spelling disabilities (RSD). Research has identified skills related to math, such as number sense (NS) and visuospatial working memory (visuospatial WM), as well as to literacy, such as phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN) and verbal short-term memory (Verbal STM). In order to explain the high comorbidity rates between MD and RSD, 7-11-year-old children were assessed on a range of cognitive abilities related to literacy (PA, RAN, Verbal STM) and mathematical ability (visuospatial WM, NS).

Visual working memory and number sense: Testing the double deficit hypothesis in mathematics.

Background: Evidence exists that there are two main underlying cognitive factors in mathematical difficulties: working memory and number sense. It is suggested that real math difficulties appear when both working memory and number sense are weak, here referred to as the double deficit (DD) hypothesis.

Aims: The aim of this study was to test the DD hypothesis within a longitudinal time span of 2 years.

Number line estimation strategies in children with mathematical learning difficulties measured by eye tracking.

Introduction: Number line estimation is one of the skills related to mathematical performance. Previous research has shown that eye tracking can be used to identify differences in the estimation strategies children with dyscalculia and children with typical mathematical development use on number line estimation tasks. The current study extends these findings to a larger group of children with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD).

Risk and protective factors in gifted children with dyslexia.

This study investigated risk and protective factors associated with dyslexia and literacy development, both at the group and individual level, to gain more insight in underlying cognitive profiles and possibilities for compensation in high-IQ children. A sample of 73 Dutch primary school children included a dyslexic group, a gifted-dyslexic group, and a borderline-dyslexic group (i.e.