Maths is often considered the “bugbear” among the school subjects, not only in relation to the achievement (or school grade), but also for the negative feelings often associated with its learning experiences. The negative halo of poorly developed mathematical knowledge affects in the first place, the protagonists of the learning (i.e. the children), but it also extends later in life reducing peoples’ employment opportunities and salaries (Geary, 2011).
There is a shared understanding that learning maths involves a complex interplay of cognitive, motivational and emotional processes (Carey, et al., 2016, Hill, et al., 2016; Mammarella, et al., 2015) implemented by an extended neural network of the brain (Szucs, Devine, Soltesz, Nobes, & Gabriel, 2014). Indeed, mathematical difficulties may be associated not only with specific mathematical learning disorders, but also with cognitive weaknesses (e.g. working memory, executive functions, etc., Caviola, et al., 2014) and emotional impairments (Ashcraft & Kirk, 2001; Devine, et al. 2017).
A substantial number of studies provide evidence that both domain-specific (i.e. aspects directly related to mathematics and numbers) and domain-general aspects have been found having an impact on mathematics performance (Krajewski & Schneider, 2009; Passolunghi & Lanfranchi, 2012). Within this framework, the flexibility and adaptability of strategic behaviour (Rittle-Johnson, Star, & Durkin, 2012; Verschaffel, Luwel, Torbeyns, & Van Dooren, 2009) is highly important as the correct execution of arithmetic problems implies a series of steps, which include adaptively switching between arithmetic strategies in order to select and apply the most efficient one (Siegler & Lemaire 1997, Siegler & Shipley 1995).
The literature presented so far refers to arithmetical proficiency extensively investigated by behavioural methods, but the more recent use of psychophysiological measures has provided some evidence relating to the neurobiological basis of arithmetical processing.
