Effect of the different components of working memory on multiplication skills of 3rd grade children

The basic arithmetic operations skills of the students play important role to solve math problems as prerequisite knowledge. Therefore, in the first years of primary education, four-operation skills are involved in math curriculum at most. The cognitive process of dealing with numbers and counting abilities are associated with working memory which is the part of this process. The purpose of this present study is to investigate the extent to which components (central executive, phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad) of working memory explaining multiplication skills of 3rd grade children. The study was carried out during the spring semester of 2015-2016 academic year at Istek Kemal Atatürk Primary School in Istanbul. 60 third grade students (23female and 37 male) whose parents were received permission were involved in the study. In order to evaluate the participants' capacity of central executive (CE), phonological loop (PL) and visuospatial sketchpad (VS) components, the tasks named as the counting recall test (CRT), digit span test (DST) and block recall test (BRT) were designed and administered by computers. In addition, participants' multiplication skills were evaluated by multiplication test (MT). Linear multiple regression analysis was used in order to analyze how well the independent variables predicted multiplication skills. The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that the best predictor variable of multiplication skills was the central executive component of working memory.