TOMSK, Jan 29 – RIA Tomsk. Scientists of Tomsk State University (TSU) took part in the international study and identified a direct relationship between the child’s potential in mathematics and his ability to operate with numbers on the mental number line, the press service of the university reported on Tuesday.
It is noted that the study was conducted by scientists of TSU and universities of the UK, USA and Canada. It was attended by more than three thousand twins aged from 8 to 16 years from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, as well as 1456 pupils from Russia aged from 8 to 18 who were not twins. The children performed the "number line" test – they were asked to place numbers from 0 to 1000 on the mental line.
"The test <...> measures the ability to evaluate numerical values on the so-called mental number line. This ability is developed with varying degrees of accuracy in different people. The study showed that these individual differences are related to differences in mathematical skills in such a way that successes in mathematics are partially related with the ability to operate numbers on the mental number line", – is said in the statement.
It is added that the scientists also concluded that if the environment does not give the child opportunities for development, then his genetic inclinations towards mathematics are harder to to be shown, and in such conditions the results of children with high and low potential may not differ."On the contrary, if the environment is more unified, for example, everyone has access to high-quality educational resources, then differences in achievements are more explained by differences in the makings, including genetic ones", – the head of the research, research supervisor of the Strategic academic unit "Institute of the Human of the Digital Era", professor of the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, Yulia Kovas.
It is added that the article on the results of the study was published in the British Journal of Educational Psychology. The received results are now being discussed in the context of the development of the educational environment, and scientists continue to work, studying the activities of the twin brains during the execution of mathematical operations.