The Moderating Role of Intelligence and Prior Knowledge for the Effectiveness of a Computer-Based Mathematics Intervention in Students with Low Mathematics Performance
Computer math drills help struggling students most when the content is truly new to them; give brighter children harder tasks right away.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers gave 24 low-math first-graders a computer game that trains counting and number order.
Kids worked alone on tablets for 15 minutes a day, four days a week.
The class went back and forth: weeks with the game, weeks without it, three full cycles.
What they found
The lower-IQ children zoomed ahead; they learned new skills each week.
The higher-IQ children in the same low-math group moved slower; they already knew many tricks.
Overall scores rose, but bright kids gained less because the tasks were too easy for them.
How this fits with other research
Morgan et al. (2025) also flipped between intervention and baseline with early readers and saw every child speed up.
Their task was new to every learner, so no one stalled—unlike the math kids who already held the strategies.
May (2019) showed that choice plus praise lifts work time; Herzog’s team did not add extra rewards, so high-IQ kids may have simply lost interest.
Together the three papers warn: if the lesson is review for some, add harder problems or special praise to keep every child moving.
Why it matters
You can use cheap math software for extra practice, but first check who already knows the skill. Give those kids tougher numbers, money problems, or timed races the same day so they stay engaged and still grow.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The moderation of intervention effects by intelligence and prior knowledge deserves further investigation, because they inform how to design and implement interventions. This study analyzed the moderation of the effectiveness of a computer-based mathematics intervention in 10 primary school students with low mathematics performance and low-to-average intelligence in an ABAB-single-case research design. Prior knowledge and intelligence were assessed before the intervention. The computer-based intervention trained basic numerical skills. Visual inspection of the learning trajectories revealed a broad heterogeneity of effectiveness of the intervention. A hierarchical piecewise regression analysis across all students revealed a significant negative moderation of the intervention effectiveness through intelligence. Whereas prior knowledge did not have a moderating influence, children with higher intelligence showed slower learning rates during the intervention in this specific low-performing sample. One reason for the negative moderation of the intervention effects could be that the intervention trained strategies and skills that more intelligent students had already developed.
Journal of Intelligence, 2026 · doi:10.3390/jintelligence14030048