Project ANNA
What is the Project ANNA?
In recent years, numerous studies in educational research have shown that children enter school equipped with already existing important prior knowledge. This knowledge facilitates the learning of reading, writing and arithmetic. Kindergarten children who notice, for instance, that words are composed of individual sounds have less difficulty in the acquisition of reading and writing skills. Kindergarten children who have a good grasp of the link between numbers and quantities experience less difficulty in acquiring school mathematics. Hitherto, however, there has been barely any research into the significance of the memory resources of a child in this early phase of development for his or her later school achievement. This question is the linchpin of the Project ANNA, which follows children in their development from kindergarten to primary school years.
The research questions of the Project ANNA
Our long-term study is meant to show whether kindergarten children with particular impairments of the subsystems of their working memory are more often among those children who show later difficulty in the acquisition of reading, writing and arithmetic. It is assumed that kindergarten children with impairments in their phonological working memory carry a particular risk for subsequent difficulties in reading and writing, but not in arithmetic. Kindergarten children with impairments of their visual-spatial working memory should carry a high risk of developing arithmetic difficulties, but should develop no difficulties in reading and writing. It is the central concern of the Project ANNA to clarify the extent to which these hypotheses are valid. Further aspects meant to be studied are the extent to which children cognitively and emotionally perceive their own difficulties and if this self-perception effects their motivation and learning behavior.
What kind of children and which skills do we study?
The children in our study are kindergarten children of the year 2008/2009, who entered school in summer 2009. As we intend to follow the development of the children over a longer period of time, we study their working memory functioning and their early developments in reading, writing and arithmetic at intervals of six months. At each individual survey, we check the functioning of the working memory subsystems of the children. For instance, the children have to solve tasks at a computer in which they are shown or told things a single time and which they are asked to remember later. In addition, we also investigate specific skills at the kindergarten age which are important for the future learning of reading, writing and arithmetic. After the children have entered school, we will finally survey their school performance in reading, writing and mathematics.
Milestones for the current year
Following a brief screening procedure that surveyed about 1350 children with regard to their working memory capacities and important school relevant prior knowledge until march 2009, 127 of these children were selected to participate in our long-term study. A quarter of these selected children are children with particular impairments of the visual-spatial working memory but no impairments in the phonological working memory subsystem (group 1: visual-spatial impairments). The second quarter comprises those children who showed a reverse pattern of the functioning of their working memory (group 2: phonological impairments). The third quarter consists of children with impairments in both areas (group 3: phonological and visual-spatial impairments). Finally, the fourth quarter is made up of 30 control children with no impairments in these areas (group 4: no impairments).
After a comprehensive evaluation of the children’s working memory functioning and school relevant prior knowledge, our long-term study started in May 2009 with the 127 selected children. In November 2009 we visited the children for the first time in school in order to examine their school achievement right after school entry. From this point on, we continuously assess the children´s school achievement in summer and their working memory functioning in winter.
Scientific coordinator
Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn
Prof. Dr. Kristin Krajewski
Contact person
Anna-Lena Preßler, Dipl.-Psych.
