A Texas A&M University educational psychologist and five co-authors have pooled data from 122 standardized test batteries to ask which thinking skills best predict how well people do in math. Their answer: two broad abilities, fluid reasoning and comprehension knowledge, came up most consistently, along with basic number skills learned early.
Daniel Hajovsky, an associate professor in the university's Department of Educational Psychology, is one of the authors of the study, "Cognitive-Mathematics Relations: A Meta-Analysis of Norm-Referenced Standardized Test Batteries," which appeared in the Journal of Intelligence in July. Texas A&M described the work in a university news release on Tuesday.
The other authors are from the University of Kansas, Temple University, St. John's University and Montclair State University, according to the journal record.
What the researchers measured
The team drew on the technical manuals of the test batteries, compiling more than 47,000 correlations from over 550 correlation matrices, according to the paper's abstract. That let them compare many different mental abilities against several kinds of math skill, including calculation, problem solving and fluency.
Comprehension knowledge covers vocabulary, language and verbal reasoning. Hajovsky compared it to the reading-heavy portion of a law school admission test. "It's important for reading, it's important for writing and we see now it's important for mathematics," he said in the release.
Fluid reasoning is the ability to work through a new problem by deduction or induction. Hajovsky said it "helps you figure out which information is relevant and what's irrelevant."
The study also found that foundational skills such as number sense and math fluency predicted later, more advanced skills like problem solving. "Cognitive abilities are important for learning and academic outcomes, but it's not what fully makes up someone's math ability," Hajovsky said.
