Involvement of working memory in mental multiplication in Chinese elementary students

ABSTRACT

The authors' aim was to examine the relation between two-digit mental multiplication and working memory. In Study 1, involving 30 fifth-grade students, we used digit span backward as an abbreviated measure of working memory. In Study 2, involving 41 fourth-grade students, working memory comprised measures of phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive (i.e., updating) based on A. Miyake et al. (2000). In Study 1, working memory measured through the use of digit span backward explained unique variance in response time. In Study 2, participants' accuracy and response time were most susceptible to phonological loop influence. The findings support the argument that multiplication facts are stored in a verbal form and the retrieval of multiplication facts relies more on verbal modality. Unique features of Chinese mathematics instruction of mental multiplication were discussed. The findings suggested that the involvement of different subcomponents of working memory in mental arithmetic may be subject to instructional, contextual, and linguistic factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese elementary students
• mental multiplication
• phonological loop
• working memory

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the parents, teachers, and students in participating schools. They also thank Agnes DeRaad for editorial support.

Funding

This project was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SKZZY2014059) [中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金资助] to Ru-De Liu. This project was partially supported by an internal grant from Fordham University to Yi Ding.