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Automatization of Counting Procedures in Children With Dyscalculia

NCT03354481 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 3

Last updated 2026-04-27

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Researchers in numerical cognition usually think that the greatest and most common difficulty in children suffering from dyscalculia is retrieval of arithmetic facts from long-term memory. However, we have recently shown that retrieval might not be the optimum strategy in mental arithmetic. In fact, expert adults would rather solve simple problems such as 3 + 2 by automated and unconscious procedures. Therefore, we hypothesize that children with dyscalculia might not present deficit in retrieval but, instead, in counting procedure automatization. The aim of the current project is to test this challenging position. Through a longitudinal approach, we plan to precisely examine the behavior of children suffering from dyscalculia over a 3-year period. Children will be aged between 8 to 11 years at the beginning of the study and we will precisely observe the evolution of their solution times when they solve simple addition problems involving one-digit numbers. If children with dyscalculia still struggle with simple additions three years, their solution times plotted on the sum of the problems should still follow an exponential function. Indeed, if counting is not automated, difficulties necessarily increase with the progression on the number line or the verbal sequence, hence the exponential function. On the contrary, if counting procedures tend towards automatization, moves along a number line will progressively become as easy at the beginning of the line as at the end, hence the linear function. Importantly, a retrieval model would predict exactly the inverse pattern because, according to this model, the linear function, which is unanimously considered as the hallmark of counting procedures, should progressively be replaced by a non-linear function through practice.

Conditions

  • Dyscalculia

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Arithmetic facts solving

The experiment will contain several tasks. The main one will be a computerized task on arithmetic facts where participants will have to solve simple additions. There will also be three additional tasks: a processing speed task where the participant will have to tell the orientation of an arrow as fast as possible, a visuo-spatial task where the participant will have to reproduce a tapping block sequence and an arithmetic task where the participant will try to solve a maximum of operations in a limited time.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of Lausanne

    collaborator OTHER

  • Hospices Civils de Lyon

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
8 Years
Max Age
11 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2018-07-12
Primary Completion
2019-09-19
Completion
2019-09-19

Countries

  • France

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03354481 on ClinicalTrials.gov