Role of distraction on children's math performance – MathDistract

In six experiments (WP1), we compared performance and strategic variations in third, fifth, and seventh graders from France (Expts. 1—6) and from France and Hong Kong (Expts. 5 & 6) under distraction and control conditions. Children solved arithmetic problems in the control condition whereas they will solve arithmetic problems while listening to distracting soundtracks in the distracting conditions. Their performance as well as strategic aspects of this performance were compared across different levels of distraction (control, no-distraction; lower, and higher distracting conditions). The distracting sounds were recordings of the sound of storyreading, either in a foreign language (for the lower-distraction condition, controlling for phonetic features across France and Hong Kong) or in the participants’ own language (for the higher distraction condition). Each of the four strategy dimensions (strategy repertoire, distribution, execution, selection) will be investigated as a function of distraction and children’s grades.

WP2 identifies factors that contribute to individual differences in sensitivity to distraction. To achieve this end, we used a cross-sequential design to examine how arithmetic performance in a distracting environment is associated with children’s inhibitory and other domain-general abilities, and how this association changes over time. Children from France and Hong Kong were asked to solve arithmetic problems like the ones used in WP 1, also under distracting and non-distracting conditions. Performance in the non-distracting condition served as a covariate to control for individual differences in arithmetic fluency. Children were also asked to complete a battery of domain-general tasks that assess inhibitory abilities, working memory, and processing speed. First and 3rd graders were recruited and tested annually for three years. The grades included will overlap with two of the grades (3rd and 5th) included in WP 1. Because of likely differences in curriculum and math performance between Hong Kong and France, we included a younger cohort (1st grade) to ensure that there is enough variation in arithmetic performance. For similar reasons, we did not recruit 7th grade children.

The results of the project are very important for the field of arithmetic. In particular, they show how distracting events can have both boosting effects and deleterious effects, depending on the moment when these events occur relative to onset of arithmetic problems. These effects suggest that two types of cognitive processes are involved in arithmetic problem solving. First phasic alert processes enable participant to focus on first stages (e.g., encoding, memory retrieval) of arithmetic processes. Second, executive control processes enable children to improve their arithmetic performance. Increased cognitive growth mostly concern the later. The results are also important in showing how distraction in math can exert its effects via executive control mechanisms, and is most important on strategy execution (less on strategy selection). Fundamentally, and more generally, our results speak to the broad issue of how domain-general and domain-specific processing mechanisms interact to produce performance in a given cognitive activity. The practical significance of these results lie in their pointing to managing learning environments that drive children’s attention to the target task and strengthens their ability to resist interference from non-relevant stimuli.

The results of this project are very important for the field of arithmetic. In particular, they show how distracting events can have both boosting effects and deleterious impact, depending on the moment when these events occur relative to onset of arithmetic problems. These effects suggest that two types of cognitives processes are involved in arithmetic problem solving. First, phasic alert processes enable participants to focus on first stages (e.g., encoding, memory retrieval) of arithmetic processes. Second, executive control processes enable children to improve their arithmetic performance. Increased cognitive growth mostly concerns the later. The results are also important in showing how distraction in math can exert its effects via executive control mechanisms, and is most important on strategy execution (less on strategy selection). Fundamentally, and more generally, our results speak to the broad issue of how domain-general and domain-specific processing mechanisms interact to produce performance in a given cognitive activity. The practical significance of these results lie in their pointing to managing learning environments that drive children’s attention to the target and strengthens their ability to resist interference from non-relevant stimuli.

These results open up two new broad perspectives for future research

1- Proximal perspectives: data analyses of longitudinal data from HKK; data analyses of French-HKK comparisons.

2- More distal perspectives: the findings open up new research venues for how to investigate role of distraction in children's math learning/development, and more generally the role of domain-general and domain-specific processes in math cognition and its age-related changes in children.

To study key mechanisms in children's math performance, everal experiments will test how distraction influences children’s difficulties in mathematics. In these experiments, children will accomplish math tasks under varying levels of distraction. New tasks involving, among other, crucial executive control mechanisms (e.g., inhibition) will be used. Psychometric properties (validity, reliability, sensitivity) will be empirically established. Also, we will test the original strategy hypothesis (i.e., distraction changes which strategies children use, how often they use strategies, how they execute and select among strategies). Theoretically the highly contributive value of the present project lies in its providing a mechanistic account of the role of distraction on children’s math performance. Empirically, in addition to specify conditions of deleterious effects of distraction, the present data will inform conditions of maximum efficiency for children to learn math.