Numerical Cognition: Loci of Ability Differences Comparing Children from China and the United States

This study was designed to determine if the advantage of Chinese children over American children in basic numerical skills is related to differences in the strategies used to solve elementary mathematics problems or to the speed of executing the underlying processes. To achieve this goal, first-grade children from China and the United States were administered a pencil-and-paper numerical ability measure and solved a series of computer-presented addition problems. For the computer task, strategies and solution times used in problem solving were recorded on a trial-by-trial basis. The Chinese children showed a 3-to-1 performance advantage on the ability measure. Chinese and American children used the same types of strategies to solve the addition problems, but the Chinese children were well ahead of their American counterparts in terms of the developmental maturity of the strategy mix. The Chinese children also showed a speed-of-processing advantage for retrieval-based, but not counting-based, processes. The strategic and speed-of-processing differences appeared to mediate the advantage of the Chinese children on the ability measure. Implications for the acquisition of more complex mathematical skills and concepts are discussed.