Low and high control working memory and counting skills in children
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14827857 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Diego Guerrero (0000-0003-3256-4575), Diego Fernando Guerrero López (0000-0002-5267-8898, University of Massachusetts Amherst, corresponding author), Santiago Murillo Granada (Universidad del Valle), Edward Alejandro Mejía Echeverry (0009-0009-1942-312X, Universidad del Valle), Zuly García (Universidad del Valle) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 77 |
| Pages | 101670 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cognitive Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0885-2014 • E-ISSN: 1879-226X |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.cogdev.2026.101670 |
| OpenAlex | W7118470971 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 63 |
Numerous studies have shown that working memory is a reliable predictor of children’s mathematical performance. However, the specific relationship between counting skills and WM capacity remains unclear. This study examined how domain-specific counting skills and domain-general WM resources contribute to preschool children’s understanding of counting principles and cardinality. Forty-eight children from a Colombian preschool completed tasks assessing stable-order knowledge, one-to-one correspondence, and cardinality, as well as WM measures spanning verbal, visual, and spatial modalities at both low- and high-control levels. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that knowledge of the counting sequence was the strongest and most consistent predictor of performance across tasks. One-to-one correspondence was explained primarily by children’s counting sequence knowledge, with minimal involvement of WM. By contrast, cardinal knowledge was predicted not only by sequence knowledge but also by high-control sequential verbal WM, highlighting the role of active manipulation of cardinal number words. Performance on the Counting span task was predicted mainly by age, with cardinal knowledge and WM contributing only marginally. Overall, these findings indicate that symbolic counting knowledge provides the core scaffolding for children’s developing understanding of natural numbers. • This study assessed children's counting abilities and verbal, visual, and spatial WM capacities. • Stable order and one-to-one correspondence rely minimally on working memory resources. • Cardinality requires active manipulation of verbal information in working memory. • Control demands, not modality alone, explain working memory effects. • Symbolic counting knowledge scaffolds early understanding of natural numbers
Modalities · Multilevel model · Working memory · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills · Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques
Operational efficiency and the growth of short-term memory span
Children's acquisition of the number words and the counting system
One, two, three, four, nothing more
Children's understanding of counting
The role of prefrontal cortex in working-memory capacity, executive attention, and general fluid intelligence
The episodic buffer
Short-Term Memory, Working Memory, and Executive Functioning in Preschoolers
Bootstrapping the Mind
The contributions of working memory domains and processes to early mathematical knowledge between preschool and first grade
Domain-general and domain-specific influences on emerging numerical cognition
Directionality in the interrelations between approximate number, verbal number, and mathematics in preschool-aged children
Language, procedures, and the non-perceptual origin of number word meanings
Arithmetic thinking as the basis of children's generative number concepts
I. Introduction
Cognitive predictors of achievement growth in mathematics
Bootstrapping & the origin of concepts
Ii. Exploring the Microstructure of Children's Central Conceptual Structures in the Domain of Number
Visual working memory and number sense
Are preschoolers who spontaneously create patterns better in mathematics
| Highly cited | No |
|---|