THE ROLE OF DOMAIN-GENERAL FACTORS IN NUMERICAL PROCESSING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Numerical skills are a major cognitive foundation of mathematical learning, especially in young children.Even though multiple prior studies have examined the isolated role of domain-general factors in numerical processing, the complex relationships between multiple domain-general abilities and numerical abilities have not been tested together.For the first time, we tested spatial skills, visuospatial short-term memory, visuospatial working memory, attention, executive function, and fine motor skills to determine whether they represent distinct constructs and correlate with numerical abilities and the development of numerical abilities independently, or whether they cluster into integrated constructs.Using an extensive sample of children (n = 339) of varying ages (between 3 and 8 years old), we examined the influence of domain-general factors on numerical skills.All participants were introduced to the GiantLeap app, an app designed to conduct child development evaluations in non-controlled environments.The evaluation process is divided into two modules: a series of engaging tasks for the child and questionnaires for the parents.We used factor analysis to cluster tasks into latent variables to analyze the data.Based on the results, we used Structural Equation Modeling with numerical abilities as the outcome variable.First and foremost, we discovered that spatial skills-including visuospatial working memory, visuospatial short-term memory, and mental rotation-directly and strongly affect numerical skills.Executive functions also affect numerical skills but to a lesser extent.Notably, executive functions made a unique contribution to symbolic numerical skills, dissociating symbolic and non-symbolic numerical skills.Interestingly, attention (tested by hyperactive symptoms and commission rates) had no direct or indirect effect on numerical processing.Age affected multiple tasks, but not in the same manner.It had the strongest effect on omission rate and numerical processing, with a weaker effect on spatial abilities (except for mental rotation, which was directly affected by age).Age did not affect attention.These results indicate that multiple factors can affect numerical performance.This conclusion bears significant implications for the early diagnosis of learning disorders and intervention methods for these disorders.