Low discriminative power of WISC cognitive profile in developmental dyscalculia

Maristella Lunardon; Gisella Decarli; Francesco Sella; Silvia Lanfranchi; Silvia Gerola; Giuseppe Cossu; Marco Zorzi

doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104478

Low discriminative power of WISC cognitive profile in developmental dyscalculia

Res Dev Disabil. 2023 May:136:104478. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104478. Epub 2023 Mar 16.

Authors

Maristella Lunardon¹, Gisella Decarli², Francesco Sella³, Silvia Lanfranchi⁴, Silvia Gerola⁵, Giuseppe Cossu⁵, Marco Zorzi⁶

Affiliations

¹ Neuroscience Area, Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, Italy.
² Department of General Psychology and Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Italy.
³ Centre for Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University, UK.
⁴ Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padova, Italy.
⁵ Centro Medico di Foniatria, Padova, Italy.
⁶ Department of General Psychology and Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Italy; IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, Venice-Lido, Italy. Electronic address: marco.zorzi@unipd.it.

PMID: 36933361
DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104478

Abstract

Background: The role of domain-general cognitive abilities in the etiology of Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is a hotly debated issue.

Aims: In the present study, we tested whether WISC-IV cognitive profiles can be useful to single out DD.

Methods and procedures: Using a stringent 2-SD cutoff in a standardized numeracy battery, we identified children with DD (N = 43) within a clinical sample referred for assessment of learning disability and compared them in terms of WISC cognitive indexes to the remaining children without DD (N = 100) employing cross-validated logistic regression.

Outcomes and results: Both groups showed higher Verbal Comprehension and Perceptual Reasoning than Working Memory and Processing Speed, and DD scores were generally lower. Predictive accuracy of WISC indexes in identifying DD individuals was low (AUC = 0.67) and it dropped to chance level in discriminating DD from selected controls (N = 43) with average math performance but matched on global IQ. The inclusion of a visuospatial memory score as an additional predictor did not improve classification accuracy.

Conclusions and implications: These results demonstrate that cognitive profiles do not reliably discriminate DD from non-DD children, thereby weakening the appeal of domain-general accounts.

Keywords: Developmental dyscalculia; Diagnosis; Math disability; Specific learning disabilities.

MeSH terms

Child
Comprehension
Dyscalculia* / diagnosis
Dyscalculia* / psychology
Humans
Learning Disabilities*
Memory, Short-Term
Wechsler Scales