Does executive function moderate the spatial-math link in preschoolers?

In the present study, we examine if the spatial-math link is moderated by executive function in preschoolers, with a particular interest in which aspects of executive function may serve as moderators for this relation. We collected data from a sample of 242 preschoolers from the Midwest United States. Individual moderation analyses were run for each of the five executive function measures to assess whether various executive functions moderate the spatial-math link.

"Mind-Muscle Connections": Differential Associations Between Handgrip and Upper Body Strength With Cognitive Function in Young and Middle-Aged Adults.

The relationship between muscle strength and cognition is widely studied in older adults; however, understanding this association at younger ages may help detect markers of early cognitive changes and inform future interventions. Accordingly, we aimed to identify relationships between handgrip, whole-body, upper body, and lower body strength and cognitive functions. A total of 112 adults (aged 18-50 years) completed comprehensive measures of muscle strength, aerobic capacity, body composition, and cognitive function.

A meta-analytic review of the relation between spatial anxiety and spatial skills.

Spatial skills are key predictors of achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, despite being acquired through everyday life and not formally taught in schools. Spatial skills include a diverse group of abilities broadly related to reasoning about properties of space such as distance and direction. Recently, more research has investigated the link between spatial skills and spatial anxiety, defined as a fear or apprehension felt when engaged in spatial thinking.

Corrigendum: Moving beyond dosage and adherence: a protocol for capturing dimensions of active child engagement as a measure of fidelity for social-emotional learning interventions.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.

Moving beyond dosage and adherence: A protocol for capturing dimensions of active child engagement as a measure of fidelity for social-emotional learning interventions.

Social-emotional competencies are important for school-readiness and can be supported through social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions in the preschool years. However, past research has demonstrated mixed efficacy of early SEL interventions across varied samples, highlighting a need to unpack the black box of which early interventions work, under what conditions, and for whom. In the present article we discuss the critical implementation component of active child engagement in an intervention as a potential point of disconnect between the intervention as designed and as implemented.

Sex differences in social and spatial perspective taking: A replication and extension of Tarampi et al. (2016).

Tarampi and colleagues (2016) found that females performed better on spatial perspective-taking tasks when social information was present. They interpreted this finding to suggest that adding social information would uniquely improve the performance of females due to their better social perspective taking. In this replication and extension study, we tested an alternative explanation for their results: the tasks with social information also provided spatial information which could explain improved performance.

Examining the relations between spatial skills and mathematical performance: A meta-analysis.

Much recent research has focused on the relation between spatial skills and mathematical skills, which has resulted in widely reported links between these two skill sets. However, the magnitude of this relation is unclear. Furthermore, it is of interest whether this relation differs in size based on key demographic variables, such as gender and grade-level, and the extent to which this relation can be accounted for by shared domain-general reasoning skills across the two domains.

A meta-analysis of the relation between math anxiety and math achievement.

Meta-analyses from the 1990s previously have established a significant, small-to-moderate, and negative correlation between math achievement and math anxiety. Since these publications, research has continued to investigate this relation with more diverse samples and measures. Thus, the goal of the present meta-analysis was to provide an update of the math anxiety-math achievement relation and its moderators.

Relations between spatial skills and math performance in elementary school children: A longitudinal investigation.

Previous research has demonstrated a link between spatial and math skills. However, little research has examined this relation longitudinally. The present study examines the development of and reciprocal relations between spatial and math skills in elementary school students.