Children with mathematical difficulties need to spend more time than typically achieving children on solving even simple equations. Since these tasks already require a larger share of their cognitive resources, additional demands imposed by the need to switch between tasks may lead to a greater decline of performance in children with mathematical difficulties. We explored differential task switch costs with respect to switching between addition versus subtraction with a tablet-based arithmetic verification task and additional standardized tests in German elementary school children in Grades 1 to 4. Two independent studies were conducted. In Study 1, we assessed the validity of a newly constructed tablet-based arithmetic verification task in a controlled classroom-setting (n = 165). Then, effects of switching between different types of arithmetic operations on accuracy and response latency were analyzed through generalized linear mixed models in an online-based testing (Study 2; n = 3,409). Children with mathematical difficulties needed more time and worked less accurately overall. They also exhibited a stronger performance decline when working in a task-switching condition, when working on subtraction (vs. addition) items and in operations with two-digit (vs. one-digit) operations. These results underline the value of process data in the context of assessing mathematical difficulties.

中文翻译：

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典型成绩儿童和有数学困难的儿童的差异转换成本。


有数学困难的孩子需要比通常有成就的孩子花费更多的时间来解决即使是简单的方程。由于这些任务已经需要更大份额的认知资源，因此在任务之间切换的需要所带来的额外要求可能会导致有数学困难的儿童的表现出现更大的下降。我们通过基于平板电脑的算术验证任务和德国 1 至 4 年级小学生的额外标准化测试，探索了加法与减法之间切换的不同任务切换成本。进行了两项独立研究。在研究 1 中，我们评估了新构建的基于平板电脑的算术验证任务在受控课堂环境中的有效性 (n = 165)。然后，通过在线测试中的广义线性混合模型分析不同类型算术运算之间的切换对准确性和响应延迟的影响（研究 2；n = 3,409）。有数学困难的孩子需要更多的时间，而且总体上工作的准确度较低。当在任务切换条件下工作、处理减法（相对于加法）项目以及进行两位数（相对于一位数）运算时，他们还表现出更严重的性能下降。这些结果强调了过程数据在评估数学困难方面的价值。