Contributions of numeral knowledge, spatial reasoning, and numerical mapping to first graders’ arithmetic and geometric skills

Abstract

The present study examined the contributions of numeral knowledge, spatial reasoning, and mapping skills to children’s arithmetic and geometric reasoning. Different measures of families’ socioeconomic status (SES) were also taken to examine their role in children’s mental transformation skills. A group of 96 first-grade children participated in the study. A total of six tests of numeral knowledge (number identification, number comparison), spatial reasoning (mental rotation, mental transformation), and mapping skills (number line, numerosity estimation) were taken as predictor variables. Arithmetic and geometry tests were administered as dependent variables. The results first showed differential relationships between the predictor variables and the mathematical measures. Mental rotation was most critical for solving missing-term problems and geometry tasks; while mapping tasks were associated with performance on canonical problems. Second, mental transformation skills had a broader effect on arithmetic and geometric performance compared to mental rotation, mediated through number line and number comparison skills. Third, parental occupation as an index of SES had an effect on arithmetic and geometric performance mediated only through mental transformation skills. These findings highlight the central role of mental transformation skills and contextual factors in children’s formal mathematical reasoning and the mediating role of mapping and number comparison skills in these effects.