Journal Article

Learning Mathematics in a Visuospatial Format: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Mental Abacus Instruction

Sullivan, Jessica, Srinivasan, Mahesh, Barner, David, Alvarez, George, Brooks, Neon, Frank, Michael C.

2016

Overview

Mental abacus (MA) is a technique of performing fast, accurate arithmetic using a mental image of an abacus; experts exhibit astonishing calculation abilities. Over 3 years, 204 elementary school students (age range at outset: 5–7 years old) participated in a randomized, controlled trial to test whether MA expertise (a) can be acquired in standard classroom settings, (b) improves students' mathematical abilities (beyond standard math curricula), and (c) is related to changes in basic cognitive capacities like working memory. MA students out-performed controls on arithmetic tasks, suggesting that MA expertise can be achieved by children in standard classrooms. MA training did not alter basic cognitive abilities; instead, differences in spatial working memory at the beginning of the study mediated MA learning.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Ltd,Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development,Wiley-Blackwell,Oxford University Press
• Subject: Ability / Arithmetic / Child / Child development / Child, Preschool / Children / Classroom Environment / Classrooms / Cognition / Cognition & reasoning / Cognitive Ability / Curricula / Elementary education / Elementary School Mathematics / Elementary School Students / Elementary schools / EMPIRICAL ARTICLES / Expertise / Experts / Female / Foreign Countries / Humans / Imagination - physiology / India / Learning / Male / Manipulative Materials / Mathematics / Mathematics - education / Mathematics Achievement / Mathematics Curriculum / Mathematics Instruction / Mathematics Tests / Memory, Short-Term - physiology / Mental Computation / Number Concepts / Randomized Controlled Trials / Short Term Memory / Spatial Ability / Spatial discrimination / Spatial memory / Spatial Memory - physiology / Teaching / Teaching Methods