Do infants have a sense of numerosity? A p-curve analysis of infant numerosity discrimination studies

Smyth, Rachael; Ansari, Daniel

doi:10.31219/osf.io/5rcxm

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Like many other animals, humans demonstrate the ability to perceive numerical information early in development. For example, infants can notice the difference between two dots sets of small numbers that differ by a factor of 3 (Smyth & Ansari, 2020). The cognitive system used to process this nonsymbolic numerical information is often referred to as the approximate number system (ANS).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharpening, focusing, and developing: A study of change in nonsymbolic number comparison skills and math achievement in 1st grade

Wilkey

Shanley

Sabb

et al. 2021

Developmental Science

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Children's ability to discriminate nonsymbolic number (e.g., the number of items in a set) is a commonly studied predictor of later math skills. Number discrimination improves throughout development, but what drives this improvement is unclear. Competing theories suggest that it may be due to a sharpening numerical representation or an improved ability to pay attention to number and filter out non-numerical information. We investigate this issue by studying change in children's performance (N = 65) on a nonsymbolic number comparison task, where children decide which of two dot arrays has more dots, from the middle to the end of 1st grade (mean age at time 1 = 6.85 years old). In this task, visual properties of the dot arrays such as surface area are either congruent (the more numerous array has more surface area) or incongruent. Children rely more on executive functions during incongruent trials, so improvements in each congruency condition provide information about the underlying cognitive mechanisms. We found that accuracy rates increased similarly for both conditions, indicating a sharpening sense of numerical magnitude, not simply improved attention to the numerical task dimension. Symbolic number skills predicted change in congruent trials, but executive function did not predict change in either condition. No factor predicted change in math achievement. Together, these findings suggest that nonsymbolic number processing undergoes development related to existing symbolic number skills, development that appears not to be driving math gains during this period.• Children's ability to discriminate nonsymbolic number improves throughout development. Competing theories suggest improvement due to sharpening magnitude representations or changes in attention and inhibition.• The current study investigates change in nonsymbolic number comparison performance during first grade and whether symbolic number skills, math skills, or executive function predict change.• Children's performance increased across visual control conditions (i.e., congruent or incongruent with number) suggesting an overall sharpening of number processing.• Symbolic number skills predicted change in nonsymbolic number comparison performance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharpening, focusing, and developing: A study of change in nonsymbolic number comparison skills and math achievement in 1st grade

Wilkey

Shanley

Sabb

et al. 2021

Developmental Science

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…13, No. 10 2017 Halberda, 2013; Smyth & Ansari, 2017). Also, this viewpoint has been proved by some special lesion cases from aphasia patient (Cohen et al, 2000;Klessinger et al, 2007;Urano et al, 2009), and we will review it in next section.…”

Section: Review Of the Studies For Arithmetic Capabilitymentioning

confidence: 81%

The Relation of Mathematics and Language Ability

Wang

Jiang²,

Zhao-Lan³

2017

ASS

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How number is presented? Is it represented difference for different species? We first review behavioural and neuropsychological studies for the representation of different level of mathematical ability for animals, infants, lesion cases and images studies to demonstrate the relationship of mathematics and language. It can be included that 1) both humans and animals share an elemental number quantification system, which is without supporting by language ability; 2) the language ability is crucial to get higher mathematical ability. We then summarize the main research status for each line of studies. Finally, we outline recommendations for future research directions.

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“…While the first two properties (number and type of element) are relatively easy to master (e.g., Kaufman et al, 1949;Strauss & Curtis, 1981;Mandler & Shebo, 1982; see also Smyth & Ansari, 2017), the concept of place value is more challenging. To master it, one has to appreciate that a symbol has to be evaluated in its context (i.e., that the value of a numeral increases by a factor of 10 if it is located to the left of another number).…”

Section: The Influence Of the Place Value System On Symbolic Number Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of the Place Value System on Symbolic Number Perception

Oberholzer¹,

Lindskog²,

Scheibehenne³

2021

Preprint

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Past research on numerical cognition has suggested that both symbolic and non-symbolic numbers are mapped onto the same compressed mental analogue representation. However, experiments using magnitude estimation tasks show logarithmic compression of symbolic numbers while the compression of non-symbolic numbers has a power-function shape. This warrants closer inspection of what differentiates the two processes. In this study, we hypothesized that estimates of symbolic numbers are systematically shaped by the format in which they are represented, namely, the place value system. To investigate this, we tested adults (N = 188) on a magnitude estimation task with unfamiliar base-26 and base-5 scales. Results reveal that adults showed systematic, logarithmic-looking underestimation on both scales, indicating that the place value system itself can cause the pattern. Additionally, the observed shape of participants’ estimates on both scales could be well explained with a simple model that assumed insufficient understanding of exponential growth (i.e., a characteristic of place value systems). Taken together, our results suggest that the discrepancy between symbolic and non-symbolic number compression can be explained by taking the effect of the place value system into account.

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Do infants have a sense of numerosity? A p-curve analysis of infant numerosity discrimination studies

Cited by 3 publications

References 37 publications

Sharpening, focusing, and developing: A study of change in nonsymbolic number comparison skills and math achievement in 1st grade

Sharpening, focusing, and developing: A study of change in nonsymbolic number comparison skills and math achievement in 1st grade

The Relation of Mathematics and Language Ability

The Influence of the Place Value System on Symbolic Number Perception

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