The Moderating Role of Intelligence and Prior Knowledge for the Effectiveness of a Computer-Based Mathematics Intervention in Students with Low Mathematics Performance

The moderation of intervention effects by intelligence and prior knowledge deserves further investigation, because they inform how to design and implement interventions. This study analyzed the moderation of the effectiveness of a computer-based mathematics intervention in 10 primary school students with low mathematics performance and low-to-average intelligence in an ABAB-single-case research design. Prior knowledge and intelligence were assessed before the intervention. The computer-based intervention trained basic numerical skills. Visual inspection of the learning trajectories revealed a broad heterogeneity of effectiveness of the intervention. A hierarchical piecewise regression analysis across all students revealed a significant negative moderation of the intervention effectiveness through intelligence. Whereas prior knowledge did not have a moderating influence, children with higher intelligence showed slower learning rates during the intervention in this specific low-performing sample. One reason for the negative moderation of the intervention effects could be that the intervention trained strategies and skills that more intelligent students had already developed.