Are individual differences in arithmetic fact retrieval related to inhibition?

Executive functions (e.g., inhibition) play an important role in scholastic learning, such as mathematics. Although it has been proposed that inhibition is related to individual differences in mathematical achievement, it is not clear how it is related to specific aspects of mathematical skills, such as arithmetic fact retrieval. However, such association can be theoretically postulated, as incorrect but competing answers have to be inhibited during fact retrieval, since arithmetic facts are stored in an associative network in semantic memory. The present study therefore investigated the association between inhibition and arithmetic fact retrieval and further examined the unique role of inhibition in individual differences in arithmetic fact retrieval, in addition to numerical magnitude processing. We administered measures of cognitive and behavioural inhibition, as well as numerical magnitude processing and arithmetic fact retrieval in 86 typically developing third graders. We used correlational, regression and Bayesian analyses. This study failed to observe a significant association between inhibition and arithmetic fact retrieval. Consequently, our results did not reveal a unique contribution of inhibition to arithmetic fact retrieval in addition to numerical magnitude processing. On the other hand, symbolic numerical magnitude processing turned out to be a very powerful predictor of arithmetic fact retrieval, as indicated by both frequentist and Bayesian approaches.status: publishe