Although mathematics skills are crucial for academic achievement, future job opportunities in adulthood, and healthcare-related decisions, the fundamental cognitive and neural mechanisms that underpin learning of basic math skills remain poorly understood. Understanding the mechanisms and specific factors that lead to better math learning is essential for those endeavoring to improve targeted remediation techniques for those with math learning difficulties. Despite the fact that long-term learning and memory systems have been carefully studied for over a century, and are well-known to play a major role in related domains such as language and reading, their role of in shaping learning and the developmental trajectory of math skill acquisition remains largely unknown. Knowledge of these mechanisms can provide a major theoretical advance in our understanding of math learning and development, which in turn can reveal critical leverage points for improving early math education and interventions to narrow the math-achievement gap for those with persistent math deficits. There is therefore a critical need for a definitive, systematic study of the specific mechanisms by which long-term memory systems support the acquisition and development of foundational math skills. Continuing to overlook the role of these memory systems in mathematics will impede theories of math development and practical efforts to improve long-term efficacy of interventions for children with math difficulties. We will implement a repeated-measures longitudinal design examining two key memory systems, declarative (DM) and procedural memory (PM), and their contributions to developmental trajectories of a range of math skills in children in 1st through 5th grades. To test specific hypotheses about the link between each memory system and different math skills, we will collect measures of standardized math achievement, arithmetic skills, and basic quantity processing. DM and PM systems have been well characterized at the neural level, so to deepen understanding of the mechanisms linking math and memory systems, we will also collect functional neuroimaging measures at both time-points to characterize learning-related changes in both brain and behavior. Repeating each measure at each time-point will make it possible to account for initial variability in and prior existing relations between variables, thus allowing us to predict changes in a particular math outcome. By revealing links between specific memory systems and math-related changes in brain and behavior, this project will provide the most comprehensive picture to date of how long-term memory mechanisms subserve math learning. This in turn will help take much of the guesswork out of determining the target of interventions aimed at improving educational outcomes for children with and without math learning difficulties.
Long-term learning and memory systems known to be crucial for the acquisition of complex skills are an almost completely untapped route to understanding the mechanisms and specific factors that lead to better math outcomes crucial to individual prosperity and well-being. We propose an accelerated, repeated-measures longitudinal project examining how neurocognitive measures of specific long-term memory systems contribute to learning-related changes in specific math outcomes in 1st through 5th grade children at multiple levels of analyses (brain and behavior). By revealing specific, directional links between memory and math systems, this work will also help determine which memory systems would be most effective targets for future randomized controlled trials, thereby increasing the probability of developing successful interventions aimed at improving outcomes in children with and without math learning difficulties.
