The contribution of attentional processes to calculation skills in second and third grade in a typically developing samp
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The contribution of attentional processes to calculation skills in second and third grade in a typically developing sample Lucia Bigozzi 1 & Sara Pezzica 2 & Chiara Malagoli 1 Received: 3 April 2020 / Revised: 11 September 2020 / Accepted: 19 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract
Attention is an important, multifaceted cognitive domain that includes many key cognitive processes involved in learning. This study aimed to identify the predictive links between different components of attentional skills and core calculation skills development, using two standardized measures assessing calculation (AC-MT 6–11) and attention skills (CAS) in a sample of 143 typically developing children of age range from 7.6 years to 9.4 years. The results showed that in 2nd grade, selective visuo-spatial attention emerged as an important predictor in the written calculation task, while the ability to inhibit distracting information seemed to better predict accuracy in oral calculation. In 3rd grade, visuo-spatial components of attention emerged as no longer predictive, whereas planning and active visuo-spatial attention abilities emerged as predictive of accuracy in the oral calculation task. These results confirm previous findings about the contribution that attentional skills may have in calculation skills development, supporting evidence for progressive automation attentional components over time. Keywords Attention . Cognitive processes . Calculation skills development . Primary school
* Lucia Bigozzi [email protected] * Chiara Malagoli [email protected] Sara Pezzica [email protected]
1
Department of Education, Languages, Interculture, Literature and Psychology (FORLIPSI), Division of Psychology, University of Florence, Via di San Salvi 12, 50135 Florence, Italy
2
Italian association for Attention Deficits and Hyperactivity Disorder (A.I.D.A.I), Florence, Italy
L. Bigozzi et al.
Introduction Attention is an important, multifaceted cognitive domain that includes many key cognitive processes involved in learning (Jaekel et al. 2013). Indeed, a number of studies that investigated the influence of attention on academic achievement outlined how being efficient in controlling and sustaining attention may be predictive of better academic achievement and with being proficiently engaged in learning activities later on in development (Alexander et al. 1994; Duncan et al. 2007; Scerif 2010). In particular, with reference to the acquisition of basic learning skills such as calculation, studies have confirmed the role of attention (Commodari and Di Blasi 2014), and as a counterpart, impairments in attention in young children have been associated with difficulties in consolidating learning skills (Mayes and Calhoun 2006; Vellutino et al. 2004). Attentional skills and the ability to master them have long-lasting development from infancy to adolescence (Wetzel 2014). Attentional efficiency improves throughout a continuum (e.g., Suades-González et al. 2017), and different attentional components emerge from the first years of prima
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