Schedule of Events | Symposia

Impact of non-verbal reasoning and baseline individual differences in cognitive training to enhance mathematical abilities

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Nieves Ruiz Ibáñez¹ (nieves.ruiz.ibanes@ki.se), Julia Ericson¹, Torkel Klingberg¹; ¹Karolinska Institutet

Enhancing spatial abilities has been suggested as a promising approach to improving mathematical skills. We hypothesized that training with non-verbal reasoning (NVR) tasks would positively influence mathematical learning and that the benefits of training would vary depending on individual differences. We included 1,028 children, aged 5–9 years, who used an adaptive mathematical and cognitive training program for 4 weeks. Participants were randomly assigned to training plans that varied in the proportions of NVR and visuospatial working memory (VSWM) tasks, with equal amounts of mathematical training. Data from the first week of training — including measures of reaction times, accuracy, and trial counts of all tasks — were input into a gradient boosting regressor that predicts the final performance on a number line task. This model was trained on an independent dataset of 33,000 children. Predicted performance (level) was included as a covariate for analyzing the new data. The amount of time spent on NVR tasks was generally associated with greater improvements in math performance. However, there was a negative interaction between the amount of NVR training and baseline performance, such that children with greater mathematical difficulties at baseline, as defined by the prediction algorithm, benefited more from NVR training, while children with higher performance at baseline showed greater improvements training on VSWM tasks instead of NVR. These findings highlight the importance of individualizing cognitive training. They also emphasize the potential of machine learning tools to optimize education, offering personalized strategies to meet each child’s unique needs.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging