The neurocognitive mechanism of mathematical cognition in schools: the influence of cognitive load, proactive control and geometric information in 9-year-olds.

Looking out at an elementary school class during a math lesson or a math test can make one wonder “what goes on inside their heads?” We ask this question since the answer will guide us in how to best help the pupils in the task that we have put upon them i.e., to learn school mathematics. This project aims at to answering that queastion.In this project we will bring cognitive neuroscience to schools.

We will test 180-240 nine-year olds with the brain imaging technique functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) at their schools.

We will investigate the cognitive and neural mechanism involved when solving additive task using pen and paper, that are only text-based or have geometric supporting information.

We will also manipulate the different cognitive loads on these tasks to evaluate to what extent task with geometric support lessens the cognitive load.For the same children we will do individual and whole class test of mathematics and executive functions and collect their national test scores to evaluate to what extent children’s ability to engage in proactive cognitive control predicts their mathematical performance.

Our cognition can  be used in a proactive (preparatory) or in a reactive (stimulus-driven) manner, and the ability to engage in proactive mode starts at around six year of age.Lastly, meta-analyze  will conducted, that synthesize what we today know about children’s ability engage in proactive control and how it realtes to academic achievement.