Resumen de Even Before Formal Instruction, Chinese Children Outperform American Children in Mental Addition

David C. Geary, Robert S. Siegler

• At the start of kindergarten, groups of Chinese and American children were administered a test of addition skills, a numerical memory span measure, and an addition strategy assessment. The Chinese children used a more mature mix of strategies to solve the addition problems, which contributed to their 3 3n1 advantage over the American children in number correct on the paper-and-pencil addition test. When the Chinese children could not retrieve an addition fact directly from memory, they tended to count verbally, whereas the American children tended to count on their fingers or guess. The national difference in the relative use of verbal and finger counting as problem-solving strategies, in turn, appeared to be related to a Chinese advantage in memory span for numbers. Implications for understanding national differences in mathematics learning and ability are discussed.