Children's expectations about training the approximate number system

Abstract

Humans possess a developmentally precocious and evolutionarily ancient approximate number system (ANS) whose sensitivity correlates with uniquely human symbolic arithmetic skills. Recent studies suggest that ANS training improves symbolic arithmetic, but such studies may engender performance expectations in their participants that in turn produce the improvement. Here, we assessed 6- to 8-year-old children's expectations about the effects of numerical and non-numerical magnitude training, as well as states of satiety and restfulness, in the context of a study linking children's ANS practice to their improved symbolic arithmetic. We found that children did not expect gains in symbolic arithmetic after exercising the ANS, although they did expect gains in ANS acuity after training on any magnitude task. Moreover, children expected gains in symbolic arithmetic after a good night's sleep and their favourite breakfast. Thus, children's improved symbolic arithmetic after ANS training cannot be explained by their expectations about that training.

Non-symbolic approximate arithmetic training improves math performance in preschoolers

“…In fact, a recent study directly probed whether children's expectations about their own subsequent symbolic arithmetic performance differed as a function of different types of cognitive training tasks. The study reports that six- to eight-year-old children did not show differences in their expectation between training that involved non-symbolic numerical quantity and training that did not involve numerical quantity (Dillon, Pires, Hyde, & Spelke, 2015). …”

Does the Approximate Number System Serve as a Foundation for Symbolic Mathematics?

“…As expected, the participants in the knowledge training condition did not improve on either measure. The lack of a transfer effect in the symbol-ordering condition argues against the idea that the approximate arithmetic group improved due to a placebo effect (e.g., Dillon, Pires, Hyde, & Spelke, 2015). If participants expected any numerical task to improve their math skills they should have benefited as much or more from numerical ordering.…”

Effects of Non-Symbolic Approximate Number Practice on Symbolic Numerical Abilities in Pakistani Children

“…Such placebo effects could occur in studies of ANS training, if adults and children believe that the training they are given will enhance their performance on the symbolic numerical test. While, to our knowledge, tests for expectations regarding training have not been conducted with adults, one recent study of ANS training expectations was conducted with children [ 52 ]. In this study, children were familiarized with the outcome tests of symbolic arithmetic and ANS acuity used in the Hyde et al’s training study with children [ 15 ].…”