Crossing the Midline: A Study of Four-Year-Old Children

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

Nuerk

Creß

2015

Many studies confirm that preschoolers from left-to-right reading societies count from left to right, which reflects the cultural direction of their spatial-numerical associations (SNAs). Other factors, not directly related to cultural experience, have not yet been systematically examined as potential determinants of counting direction in preschool children. In this study, we test one such determinant, i.e. whether and how counting direction is related to body-centred reference frames, such as a preferred hand in different spatial-motoric settings. We first asked preschoolers to count spontaneously. Then, we asked them to use a particular hand to count objects presented close to or far away from their bodies. An overall left-toright counting dominance was replicated, but it was modulated by a counting hand in both tasks: Children preferred to start counting from an object ipsilateral to the hand used. This pattern increased when stimuli were in a position close to the body. We conclude that early counting preferences of preliterate children are embodied. The SNAs which were assessed are not only related to culture but also to situated individual bodily reference frames.

Section: Bodily Reference Frames and Their Relation To Spatial Prefermentioning

confidence: 95%

Does your body count? Embodied influences on the preferred counting direction of preschoolers

Journal of Cognitive Psychology

Nuerk

Creß

2015

“…Children were able to choose spontaneously which hand they would use for counting. Since preschoolers usually exhibit ipsilateral strategies in manual tasks (they perform an action on a side which is ipsilateral to a used hand; Bradshaw, Spataro, Harris, Nettleton & Bradshaw, ; Carlier, Doyen & Lamard, ; Gabbard, Helbig & Gentry, ; Gleissner, Bekkering & Meltzoff, ; Hausmann, Waldie & Corballis, ; Screws, Eason & Surburg, ; van Hof, van der Kamp & Savelsbergh, ), forcing them to count with one particular hand could distort their natural spatial counting preferences. Both the direction of counting and the hand used to solve the task were recorded by the experimenter.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to rapidly construct a spatial–numerical representation in preliterate children (at least temporarily)

Fischer²,

Nuerk

et al. 2015

Developmental Science

Spatial processing of numbers has emerged as one of the basic properties of humans' mathematical thinking. However, how and when number-space relations develop is a highly contested issue. One dominant view has been that a link between numbers and left/right spatial directions is constructed based on directional experience associated with reading and writing. However, some early forms of a number-space link have been observed in preschool children who cannot yet read and write. As literacy experience is evidently not necessary for number-space effects, we are searching for other potential sources of this association. Here we propose and test a hypothesis that the number-space link can be quickly constructed in preschool children's cognition on the basis of spatially oriented visuo-motor activities. We trained 3- and 4-year-old children with a non-numerical spatial movement task (left-to-right or right-to-left), where via touch screen children had to move a frog across a pond. After the training, children had to perform a numerosity comparison task. After left-to-right training, we observed a SNARC-like effect (reactions to smaller numbers were faster on the left side, and reactions to larger numbers on the right side), and after right-to-left training a reverse effect. These results are the first to show a causal link between visuo-motor activities and number-space associations in children before they learn to read and write. We argue that simple activities, such as manual games, dominant in a given society, might shape number-space associations in children in a way similar to lifelong reading training.

“…In tasks like reaching or pointing, preschool children usually exhibit the effect of midline crossing inhibition (MCI): they prefer to reach for or place an object on the side ipsilateral to the used hand, or to do so with the hand Unauthenticated Download Date | 5/11/18 8:33 PM ipsilateral to the side of a planned action (Bradshaw, Spataro, Harris, Nettleton, & Bradshaw, 1988;Carlier, Doyen & Lamard, 2006;Gabbard, Helbig, & Gentry, 2001;Gleissner, Bekkering, & Meltzoff, 2000;Hausmann, Waldie, & Corballis, 2003;Leconte & Fagard, 2006;Screws, Eason, & Surburg, 1998;van Hof, van der Kamp, & Savelsbergh, 2002). This effect is age-specific and disappears in older children (Cermak, Quintero, & Cohen, 1980).…”

Section: How Manual Response Pattern May Be Related To Number-space Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Playing Reading, Using Hands: Which Activities are Linked to Number-Space Processing in Preschool Children?

Psychology of Language and Communication

Haman

2017

Literate subjects from Western cultures form spatial-numerical associations (SNA) in left-to-right direction, which follows their reading habits. In preliterate children, sources of SNA directionality are more disputable. One possibility is that SNA follows children's early knowledge about text orientation. It could also reflect ipsilateral/contralateral tendencies in manual task execution. Furthermore, SNA's characteristics could differ depending on the evaluation method used. In this study, we test SNA in preliterate preschoolers using object counting, finger counting, and numerosity arrangement tasks. We examined the relations of SNA to children's directional reading knowledge and their manual response tendencies. Left-to-right SNA was pronounced for object counting, disappeared for the numerosity task, and was reversed for finger counting. In all tasks, left-to-right SNA dominated in children who responded contralaterally with their hand. Reading knowledge was partially related to numerosity-based SNA, but not to other SNAs. Based on these findings, we discuss developmental characteristics of different forms of number-space associations.