This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Why do some students dread math class while others look forward to it? New research offers a closer look at the thinking skills that may help explain differences in math ability.
Daniel Hajovsky, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University, studies human intelligence and the cognitive processes that affect learning. In a study published in the Journal of Intelligence, Hajovsky and his co-authors examined the relationship between cognitive abilities and mathematics skills. The findings point to fluid reasoning and comprehension knowledge as two of the most consistent cognitive predictors of math skills.
To better understand which processes are most closely tied to math ability, the researchers compared findings across a broad range of cognitive and academic assessments. In psychology, a test battery is a set of tests that measures cognitive or behavioral abilities. For example, the Wechsler cognitive test is one test battery commonly used to evaluate children's intellectual abilities.
Hajovsky said the research is unique because it brings together 122 distinct test batteries in a single analysis, allowing researchers to examine relationships between a wide range of cognitive abilities and math skills, including math knowledge, calculation, problem solving and fluency. The researchers found that one cognitive skill that strongly influences math skills is comprehension knowledge, which represents language, vocabulary and the ability to engage in verbal reasoning, Hajovsky said. "If someone wants to go to law school, they'll take the Law School Admission Test.
Part of that test requires strong reading comprehension skills and bringing in your own background knowledge or schemas of understanding to make sense of the new information you're learning. That's comprehension knowledge," he said. "It's important for reading, it's important for writing and we see now it's important for mathematics." The second key cognitive skill is fluid reasoning, or the ability to engage in deductive or inductive reasoning.
"The example I like to use to explain fluid reasoning is, 'How well can a student learn a game when there are no prior rules or background knowledge required for it?'" Hajovsky said. "When you're reasoning internally, you're still using verbal knowledge and information, but fluid reasoning helps you figure out which information is relevant and what's irrelevant." But being good at math isn't simply a matter of having strong general cognitive abilities. Foundational math skills mattered, too.
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