Articles about poverty impacting ability to learn and process abstract concepts in math and literature?

Hi Friends,

Several years ago, I stumbled across an educational psychology article that discussed (and this is a very abbreviated summary) that people who grew up experiencing poverty had a harder time learning in courses that required abstract concepts. It indicated that people who experience poverty are more likely to be wired to think literally and concretely because this sort of thinking was necessary for day to day survival, and that abstract concepts that do not have a tangible application are more difficult for them to process. It used examples from math, such as the way that algebra uses a lot of abstract symbols. It also discussed how these students have trouble identifying abstract concepts in literature.

Does anyone know of any articles similar to this? I know it's unlikely that I'll find that particular article, but I am looking for similar content. I have tons of resource material about how poverty decreases access to books, hampers reading, and how children who experience poverty have less exposure to syntactically diverse vocabulary. I also have a ton of stuff showing that they tend to fall behind in math. What I'm hoping to find is information about why this happens cognitively. I found the idea that people who experience poverty thinking more concretely because they are wired for immediate survival to be interesting, but I think it's a mistake to make that a generalization, so I'm trying to read more about the topic. If anyone knows any articles, web sites with sources, studies, authors, etc, I would love to read them!

Submitted July 10, 2020 at 11:26AM by underscore_sally https://ift.tt/2OcAG9x