Can playing and imagining aid in learning mathematics? An experimental study of the relationships among building-block play, mental imagery, and arithmetic skills.

SUMMARY. Block-building games require skills such as classification, measurement, organization, and enumeration, which are relevant for Mathematics, in association with the ability to visualize through mental imagery. The aim of this research was to test the relationships among competence in building-block, mental imagery, and mathematical abilities while controlling for gender and for the child’s general intellectual ability. The sample consisted of 160 fourth and fifth grade students, 77 males and 83 females, age range 9-11 years. An evaluation grid for assessing performance in building-block play, standardized tasks aimed at measuring mental imagery, and the AC-MT test of arithmetic, were used as instruments. Grades in mathematics were also recorded, and non-verbal reasoning was assessed by Raven’s Progressive Matrices test. The results demonstrated that ability in both building blocks and imaginative tasks significantly predicts arithmetic performance. General intellectual ability is a significant covariate in these relations, while gender differences appear to be irrelevant at this age.

ABSTRACT. Lo scopo principale del presente studio è stato quello di indagare la relazione che intercorre tra il gioco con le costruzioni, l’apprendimento della matematica e le immagini mentali, tenuto conto che i meccanismi e le abilità cognitive sottostanti tale relazione non sono stati ancora del tutto definiti. La ricerca, che ha coinvolto 160 bambini dai 9 agli 11 anni, ha messo in evidenza come il gioco con i mattoncini sia pensato per sviluppare le abilità logico-matematiche, rappresentando, insieme alle immagini mentali, uno strumento utile a veicolare le basi sulle quali costruire successivamente gli apprendimenti matematici.