工作记忆:人类高级认知活动的核心

工作记忆是个体在执行认知任务过程中,对信息暂时保持与操作的能力。近年来的诸多研究指出,工作记忆在人类智力、学习、推理、创造力等高级认知活动中起重要的作用。潜变量分析揭示了工作记忆的中央执行系统与高级认知活动之间存在着密切关系;而脑成像研究显示,工作记忆与高级认知活动的共享脑机制可能是两者关系紧密的主要原因;通过对个体工作记忆能力的训练,提升其阅读能力、智力水平等高级认知能力的干预研究,则进一步证明了工作记忆在人类高级认知活动中的核心影响。     

A comparison of updating processes in children good or poor in arithmetic word problem-solving

This study examines the updating ability of poor or good problem solvers. Seventy-eight fourth-graders, 43 good and 35 poor arithmetic word problem-solvers, performed the Updating Test used in Palladino et al. [Palladino, P., Cornoldi, C., De Beni, R., and Pazzaglia F. (2002). Working memory and updating processes in reading comprehension. Memory and Cognition, 29, 344–354.]. The participants listened to wordlists, each comprising 12 words referring to objects or animals of different sizes. At the end of each list participants were asked to recall the 3 or 5 words denoting the smallest objects/animals in the list. Results show that poor problem-solvers recalled fewer correct words and made more intrusion errors (recall of non-target words) than good problem-solvers. Results support the hypothesis that the ability to select and update relevant, and suppress irrelevant information, is related to problem-solving, even when the influence of reading comprehension is controlled for. With reference to Baddeley's, and other recent WM models [Miyake, A., and Shah, P. (Eds.), (1999). Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. New York: Cambridge University Press.], our results point to the idea that problem-solving relies on the central executive for processing and updating information contained in the problems.     

Does parental employment affect children's educational attainment?

This paper analyzes whether there exists a causal relationship between parental employment and children's educational attainment. We address potential endogeneity problems due to (i) selection of parents in the labor market by estimating a model on sibling differences and (ii) reverse causality by focusing on parents’ employment when children are aged 0–3. We use data from the German Socioeconomic Panel that provide information on household income, parental employment, and time spent with child care. Our approach disentangles income and time effects of parental employment. Overall, we find little support that parental employment affects children's educational attainment. Controlling for household income, we can rule out that having a mother who works one hour more per week lowers the probability of high secondary track attendance by more than 0.1%.     

儿童的执行性功能

执行性功能是指为达到未来目标而保持适当的问题解决定势的能力，是儿童认知发展的重要方面。章简要介绍了儿童执行性功能的概念、构成成分、研究方法、年龄发展等问题。发展心理学领域的儿童执行性功能研究的深度和广度有待于进一步加强。     

Studying mathematics learning in collective activity

This paper describes a study of the interplay between social and developmental processes in children's mathematics learning. The focus is on children's play of an educational game, Treasure Hunt, and the way children's interactions in play frame developmental processes involving arithmetic with base-10 blocks. Sixty-four third and fourth graders were grouped in same- and mixed-grade dyads. Analyses of interactions revealed that players were frequently involved with jointly structuring arithmetical problems involving base-10 blocks. However, the arithmetical goals that members of dyads created often differed as labor became divided in their activity. Two findings were of particular interest: (1) differences in divisions of labor as a function of players' grades and grades of their opponents led to construction of different arithmetical goals, and (2) differences in goals led to different sequences in children's strategic developments, sequences that differed from the developmental trajectory in our matched controls.     

Teachers' Mini-Case Studies of Children's Mathematics

This article reports findings from a five-day summer institute conducted with 27 practicing primary-grade teachers. The institute was part of a year-long professional development project that supported teachers' thinking about children's arithmetical understanding. From Quicktime movies that contained excerpts of six children's interviews, pairs of teachers developed mini-cases about the children's arithmetical understanding. At the end of the institute, the teachers presented their mini-case studies to the group. Teachers developed two types of hypotheses: hypotheses about children's thinking and hypotheses about what it means for children to know and do mathematics. After providing examples to clarify the two types of hypotheses, we address the challenges we faced in developing multimedia inquiry-based environments that facilitated teachers' thinking about children's arithmetical thinking. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Individual differences in memory updating in relation to arithmetic problem solving

The study investigates the relationship between memory updating and arithmetic word problem solving. Two groups of 35 fourth graders with high and low memory-updating abilities were selected from a sample of 89 children on the basis of an updating task used by Palladino et al. [Memory & Cognition 29 (2002) 344]. The two groups were required to solve a set of arithmetic word problems and to recall relevant information from another set of problems. Several span tasks, a computation test, and the PMA verbal subtest were also administered. The group with a high memory-updating ability performed better in problem solving, recalling text problems, and in the computation test. The two groups did not differ in the PMA verbal subtest or in the digit and word spans. Results were interpreted as supporting the importance of updating ability in problem solving and of the substantial independence between memory updating and problem solving on one hand and verbal intelligence on the other.     

Working Memory and Reading Difficulties: What We Know and What We Don’t Know About the Relationship

This paper examines the role of Working Memory (WM) in developmental reading problems, considering: 1) The operationalization of WM; 2) The unique contribution of WM to reading; 3) Domain-general or -specific explanations of decoding and reading comprehension deficits; and 4) The capacity of WM constructs to distinguish between reading disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is concluded that: 1) Significant problems operationalizing working memory measures remain; 2) No clear unique role for WM is evident in longitudinal studies of reading acquisition; 3) Existing evidence concerning the domain-specificity or generality of WM problems is hard to interpret given problems in identification and sampling of poor readers and operationalization of WM constructs; 4) Further work is required to specify the nature of WM problems in samples of poor readers, as distinct from other co-occurring problems such as ADHD. Additional research is suggested to address these issues more fully.     

工作记忆与算术认知的研究现状与前瞻

工作记忆是当今认知心理学研究的一个重要领域。它是一种记忆系统,用于有限容量信息的暂时性储存和加工,在许多复杂的认知活动中起作用,如算术认知等。工作记忆的各成分对个体的算术认知所起的作用不同。目前工作记忆与算术认知研究的新趋势主要集中在采用“纯”干扰中央执行功能的任务研究工作记忆与算术认知的关系、工作记忆在各种算术运算中的作用、工作记忆与算术认知策略的关系等方面。     

时空信息和工作记忆广度对情境模型更新的影响

目的:时空信息和工作记忆广度对语篇理解中情境模型更新的影响。方法:采用2×2×3混合实验设计,以探测词的反应时为指标,以故事短文为实验材料,采用词汇再认的方法进行实验。结果:时间表征的主效应显著,F(2,86)=17.298,P<0.001;角色行为和探测物体之间的一致性的主效应显著,F(1,43)=8.614,P<0.01;工作记忆广度的主效应接近显著,F(1,43)=4.045,P=0.051。结论:时间信息以隐含的形式给出时,时空信息影响情境模型的更新,空间的转换对情境模型的更新起主要作用。工作记忆广度影响情境模型空间维度的加工,高工作记忆广度读者比低工作记忆广度读者更容易产生情境模型的更新。     

The development of executive functioning across the transition to first grade and its predictive value for academic achievement

Executive functions (EFs), used to guide goal-directed behavior, are essential for adequate classroom functioning. The current study aims to, (1) examine development and stability of three core EFs (working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility) across the transition to first grade; and (2) investigate the relationship of EFs with academic achievement, taking into account their multidimensionality and interconnections. EF tasks were administered at the end of kindergarten and first grade (n = 89) and standardized achievement tests at the end of first grade. Results indicate moderate to large growth and stability in working memory and cognitive flexibility and small improvements and stability in inhibition. Working memory predicted academic achievement, cognitive flexibility had a limited role and no additional contribution of inhibition was found. The current study suggests that the transitional period to first grade can be an important period to promote EF development, which in turn can support the prevention of later school problems.     

Working memory updating as a predictor of academic attainment

There is growing evidence supporting the importance of executive functions, and specifically working memory updating (WMU), for children’s academic achievement. This study aimed to assess the specific contribution of updating to the prediction of academic performance. Two updating tasks, which included different updating components, were administered to 97 fourth-grade children. The keeping track task involves retrieval and substitution of information, while the numerical updating task also includes a transformation component. Academic attainment was assessed through standardised tests of verbal comprehension, arithmetic operations, mathematical problems and an assessment made by the teacher. The relative contribution to academic attainment, of the updating measures and measures related to intelligence, was compared. Results showed that both updating tasks are predictive measures of academic attainment, although the numerical updating task appeared to be a more consistent predictor of children’s performance. The relationship between updating and academic attainment is discussed, and possible educational implications are considered. The role of the transformation component of WMU is highlighted. This component could make a distinct and independent contribution to performance and, by extension, could be particularly relevant to the prediction of academic achievement.     

The working memory rating scale: A classroom-based behavioral assessment of working memory

The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential of the Working Memory Rating Scale (WMRS), an observer-based rating scale that reflects behavioral difficulties of children with poor working memory. The findings indicate good internal reliability and adequate psychometric properties for use as a screening tool by teachers. Higher (i.e., more problematic) teacher ratings on the WMRS were associated with lower memory scores on direct assessments of working memory skills, as measured by the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA) and the WISC-IV Working Memory Index. The use of the WMRS will allow educators to draw on their expertise in the classroom for early detection of children with working memory failures.     

Executive functions as predictors of critical thinking: Behavioral and neural evidence

Theories of critical thinking suggest that executive functions play crucial roles in students’ critical thinking performance. However, very little empirical research has examined the potential confounding factors of fluid intelligence and thinking dispositions on the relationship between executive functions and critical thinking. Study 1, based on a large sample of university students, filled this gap by exploring how three core executive functions (updating, inhibition, and shifting) predicted critical thinking after controlling for fluid intelligence and thinking dispositions. The results showed that updating and inhibition predicted critical thinking over and above fluid intelligence and thinking dispositions. In Study 2, we explored the neural basis of the relationship between executive functions and critical thinking. We found that low-level critical thinkers exhibited higher P3 amplitudes than their high-level counterparts when completing updating and inhibition tasks. These results suggest that critical thinking relies on both updating and inhibition processes indexed by the P3 ERP components.     

Naming speed and effortful and automatic inhibition in children with arithmetic learning disabilities

We report a two-year longitudinal study aimed at investigating the rate of access to numerical and non-numerical information in long-term memory and the functioning of automatic and effortful cognitive inhibition processes in children with arithmetical learning disabilities (ALDs). Twelve children with ALDs, of age 9.3 years, and twelve gender–age-matched controls were involved in the study. Rate of access was measured through digit- and letter-naming tasks, automatic cognitive inhibition was measured using a negative priming paradigm, and effortful cognitive inhibition was measured rating intrusion errors in a working memory task. Children with ALDs suffered from a deficit in the speed of activating both numerical and non-numerical information from long-term memory and in effortful inhibition mechanisms. No evidence for dysfunction of the automatic inhibition processes was found.     

新形势下高校德育工作的思考

在社会主义市场经济的新形势下,高校德育工作面临着新问题、新情况,按照中央德育工作会议精神,结合高校实际,深入分析当前德育工作存在的问题,树立德育工作新观念,创新德育内容,不断探索德育工作新思路,研究新策略,构建新模式,可以使高校德育工作不断深入,推动高校德育工作发展以及德育目标的实现。     

Performance in solving arithmetic problems: a comparison of children with different levels of achievement in mathematics and reading

The aim of the present study was to investigate the performance in arithmetic related to achievement levels in reading and mathematics. Basic arithmetical facts and multi‐step calculations were examined. The participants were 941 pupils aged 8 (N = 415), 10 (N = 274) and 13 (N = 252) years. The pupils were divided into four groups by standardized achievement tests. One group showed low achievement in both mathematics and reading (MLRL), a second group showed low achievement in mathematics only (ML‐only), a third group in reading only (RL‐only) and a fourth group showed normal achievement in both mathematics and reading (NA). The ML‐only and the MLRL groups did not differ significantly in basic arithmetical facts at any age level, but both groups performed below the RL‐only and NA groups. The two latter groups also performed similarly at all year levels. In multi‐step calculation all groups differed significantly at the lowest age level, with the NA as the group with the best achievement, followed by RL‐only, ML‐only and the MLRL group. At the two highest age levels the relations between the groups, in multi‐step calculation, were in accordance with the results regarding basic facts. The findings indicate, for both normal and low general mathematical ability, that low achievement in reading to a small extent interferes with the pupils’ development of arithmetic performance     

Relationships between Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) cognitive abilities and math achievement within a sample of college students with learning disabilities

This study examined the relationship between cognitive abilities and math achievement within a sample of college students with learning disabilities (LD). The cognitive abilities were seven areas identified by Stratum II of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities, in addition to the eighth area of Working Memory. Math performance was assessed via math calculation and math reasoning tasks. Instruments include the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities and Tests of Achievement. Participants were 158 college students with a diagnosed LD in math. Multiple regression analyses found that Processing Speed and Working Memory were related to Math Calculation scores and that Comprehension-Knowledge, Fluid Reasoning, and Working Memory were related to Math Reasoning. Implications for the assessment of math LD in the college populations are discussed.     

心理学视域下小学生工作记忆特点及训练

工作记忆是在不同的加工和储存任务中能够灵活地分配能量的记忆系统,在认知活动中具有重要的作用。小学阶段是工作记忆发展的关键阶段,算术、视空间工作记忆都迅速发展。教学中的工作记忆训练以工作记忆测量结果为基础,通过选择有效方法、设计游戏形式的训练、合理设计工作记忆训练的强度及时间等来提高小学生的工作记忆水平。     

The role of executive functions in the relation between socioeconomic level and the development of reading and maths skills / El rol de las funciones ejecutivas en la relación entre el nivel socioeconómico y el desarrollo de habilidades lectoras y matemáticas

Executive functions (EF) are a set of processes that allow individuals to plan, monitor and organize tasks and thus play a key role in the development of reading and maths skills. Environmental factors such as socioeconomic level (SEL) influence reading and maths skills as well as EFs. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which executive functions play a mediating role between SEL and reading and maths performance. To this end, we assessed 286 Chilean primary education students: 86 with a high SEL and 200 with a low level. The results show that the high-SEL group obtained consistently higher scores than their peers with low SEL levels in both reading and maths tasks as well as in EF measurements. This suggests that SEL could influence the development of these variables. The results also showed that EFs partially mediate the relation between SEL and reading and maths skills in primary school students through the specific function of inhibition. The results are discussed in light of the effect of SEL on the development of EFs and school learning.