Subtraction

This study investigated the relationships between Piagetian logical reasoning abilities with an information processing capacity, and first-grade children's performance on verbal addition and subtraction problems. An analysis cf simple arithmetic problems indicated that several reasoning abilities identified by Piaget are needed to achieve operational understanding of addition and subtraction. The abilities studied were number conservation, class inclusion, and transitive inference. The arithmetic problems used were varied systematically in semantic structure, number size, and the availability of objects to aid the solution process. Statistically significant differences between the developmental groups were found for some of the cognitive variables cn some problem types. However, no clear pattern emerged to suggest that a particular cognitive ability was especially important for solving a specifi