Hitting the Target: Mathematical Attainment in Children Is Related to Interceptive-Timing Ability

Oscar T Giles; Katy A Shire; Liam J B  Hill; Faisal  Mushtaq; Amanda Waterman; Raymond J Holt; Peter R Culmer; Justin H G Williams; Richard M  Wilkie; Mark  Mon-Williams

doi:10.1177/0956797618772502

Hitting the Target: Mathematical Attainment in Children Is Related to Interceptive-Timing Ability

Oscar T Giles, Katy A Shire, Liam J B Hill, Faisal Mushtaq, Amanda Waterman, Raymond J Holt, Peter R Culmer, Justin H G Williams, Richard M Wilkie^* (Corresponding Author), Mark Mon-Williams

^*Corresponding author for this work

Applied Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Interceptive timing (IntT) is a fundamental ability underpinning numerous actions (e.g. ball catching), but its development and relationship with other cognitive functions remains poorly understood. Piaget (1955) suggested that children need to learn the physical rules that govern their environment before they can represent abstract concepts such as number and time. Thus, learning how objects move in space and time may underpin the development of related abstract representations (i.e. mathematics). To test this hypothesis, we captured objective measures of IntT in 309 primary school children (4-11 years), alongside ‘general motor skill’ and ‘national standardized academic attainment’ scores. Bayesian estimation showed that IntT (but not general motor capability) uniquely predicted mathematical ability even after controlling for age, reading and writing attainment. This finding highlights that interceptive timing is distinct from other motor skills with specificity in predicting childhood mathematical ability independent of other forms of attainment and motor capability.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1334-1345
Number of pages	12
Journal	Psychological Science
Volume	29
Issue number	8
Early online date	10 Jul 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618772502
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2018

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
The development of the bespoke manipulandum was outsourced to ReSolve Research Engineering (http://www.resolve-re.co.uk). Thanks to Katie Mooney and Joyti Panesar for help with data collection and producing a figure and to Ed Berry for help with coordination of data collection and planning. Thanks to all the undergraduate students involved in data collection. Special thanks to the SHINE schools for enabling us to conduct this research.

Funding
K. A. Shire, L. J. B. Hill, A. Waterman, and M. Mon-Williams were funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLARHC) Yorkshire and Humber (www
.clahrc-yh.nihr.ac.uk). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care.

Keywords

Interceptive Timing
Mathematics
Reading
Writing
Education
Posture
Fine motor
gross motor
educational neuroscience
open data

Access to Document

10.1177/0956797618772502Licence: Unspecified

Accepted Manuscript
Giles, OT, Shire, KA, Hill, LJB, Mushtaq, F, Waterman, A, Holt, RJ, Culmer, PR, Williams, JHG, Wilkie, RM & Mon-Williams, MA , Hitting the target: Mathematical attainment in children is related to interceptive timing ability, Psychological Science 29(8) pp. 1334-1345. Copyright © 2018 by Association for Psychological Science. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
Accepted author manuscript, 581 KBLicence: Unspecified
Supplementary InformationAccepted author manuscript, 469 KBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "Hitting the Target: Mathematical Attainment in Children Is Related to Interceptive-Timing Ability",

abstract = "Interceptive timing (IntT) is a fundamental ability underpinning numerous actions (e.g. ball catching), but its development and relationship with other cognitive functions remains poorly understood. Piaget (1955) suggested that children need to learn the physical rules that govern their environment before they can represent abstract concepts such as number and time. Thus, learning how objects move in space and time may underpin the development of related abstract representations (i.e. mathematics). To test this hypothesis, we captured objective measures of IntT in 309 primary school children (4-11 years), alongside {\textquoteleft}general motor skill{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}national standardized academic attainment{\textquoteright} scores. Bayesian estimation showed that IntT (but not general motor capability) uniquely predicted mathematical ability even after controlling for age, reading and writing attainment. This finding highlights that interceptive timing is distinct from other motor skills with specificity in predicting childhood mathematical ability independent of other forms of attainment and motor capability.",

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AU - Culmer, Peter R

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AU - Wilkie, Richard M

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N2 - Interceptive timing (IntT) is a fundamental ability underpinning numerous actions (e.g. ball catching), but its development and relationship with other cognitive functions remains poorly understood. Piaget (1955) suggested that children need to learn the physical rules that govern their environment before they can represent abstract concepts such as number and time. Thus, learning how objects move in space and time may underpin the development of related abstract representations (i.e. mathematics). To test this hypothesis, we captured objective measures of IntT in 309 primary school children (4-11 years), alongside ‘general motor skill’ and ‘national standardized academic attainment’ scores. Bayesian estimation showed that IntT (but not general motor capability) uniquely predicted mathematical ability even after controlling for age, reading and writing attainment. This finding highlights that interceptive timing is distinct from other motor skills with specificity in predicting childhood mathematical ability independent of other forms of attainment and motor capability.

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Hitting the Target: Mathematical Attainment in Children Is Related to Interceptive-Timing Ability

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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