How Multi-digit Number Names Guide Attention, Memory, and Place Value Learning in Early Elementary Mathematics

Lucile Vleugels, CU Graduate Student 

The poster will showcase two ongoing projects in the Development Education and Learning lab at CU Boulder that aim to understand the cognitive processes involved in early multidigit number learning with children ages 4-6. One study examines how number names affect children's attention and memory through a controlled experiment. The second study explores how children's different levels of background knowledge relate to their eye movement patterns during naturalistic number learning activities. Together, these studies analyze children's eye movements and task performance over time to gain an understanding of the dynamic processes involved in early learning, such as integrating prior exposure to numbers, attention, gestures, and language. They also help us understand why children with the same instruction and teachers often have different learning outcomes and trajectories in elementary school and beyond. This ongoing challenge motivates much of our research, and we look forward to sharing some of our preliminary findings with a diverse audience. 

Bio URL: https://www.colorado.edu/ics/lucile-lucie-vleugels

Poster PDF: https://www.colorado.edu/csl/media/1221

Related Paper: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/del/publications

Program URL: https://www.colorado.edu/lab/del/publications