A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Pathways to Mathematics Model in Adults

The Pathways to Mathematics model demonstrated the relations among cognitive precursors and mathematical outcomes in children. In this study, I extended the model to adults and compared the model across cultures. Results showed similarities and differences in the model in relation to children. A major difference in the results for adults compared to children was that linguistic skill did not predict adults' performance on calculation, suggesting that linguistic ability is no longer related to symbolic number system knowledge in adults due to the developed ability of automatized number naming. Culture had a moderating effect on contribution of quantitative knowledge towards number line task performance, suggesting different strategy choices across culture. These findings indicate that the relative contributions of linguistic skill, quantitative knowledge, working memory, and spatial ability vary depending on the demands of specific task.