Does math education modify the approximate number system? A comparison of schooled and unschooled adults

Nys, Julie; Ventura, Paulo; Fernandes, Tânia; Querido, Luís; Leybaert, Jacqueline

doi:10.1016/j.tine.2013.01.001

Cited by 70 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Castronovo & Gobel, 2012;Halberda et al, , 2012Inglis et al, 2011;Libertus et al, 2012;Lyons & Beilock, 2011;Piazza et al, 2010;Price et al, 2012;Sasanguie et al, 2012), others have used NREs (e.g., Bugden et al, 2012;Holloway & Ansari, 2009;Lourenco et al, 2012;Merkley & Ansari, 2010;Price et al, 2012), and others accuracy (e.g. Fuhs & McNeil, 2013;Nys et al, 2013;Wei et al, 2012). One account for why some of these researchers have found a relationship between ANS acuity and mathematics achievement, and others have not, is simply that their choice of index do not measure the same underlying phenomenon.…”

Section: Price Et Al (2012) Calculated Immediate Test-retest Reliabimentioning

confidence: 99%

Indexing the approximate number system

2014

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Much recent research attention has focused on understanding individual differences in the Approximate Number System, a cognitive system believed to underlie human mathematical competence. To date researchers have used four main indices of ANS acuity, and have typically assumed that they measure similar properties. Here we report a study which questions this assumption. We demonstrate that the Numerical Ratio Effect has poor testretest reliability and that it does not relate to either Weber fractions or accuracy on nonsymbolic comparison tasks. Furthermore, we show that Weber fractions follow a strongly skewed distribution and that they have lower test-retest reliability than a simple accuracy measure. We conclude by arguing that in future researchers interested in indexing individual differences in ANS acuity should use accuracy figures, not Weber fractions or Numerical Ratio Effects.

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Section: Price Et Al (2012) Calculated Immediate Test-retest Reliabimentioning

confidence: 99%

Indexing the approximate number system

2014

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“…Although many of the studies on the relationship between the ANS and symbolic math controlled for non-numerical factors including general IQ and working memory, the causal arrows underlying any potential link remain unclear. Having more precise ANS representations could causally benefit math abilities, or having better math abilities or greater engagement with math might sharpen ANS representations (see Nys et al, 2013; Piazza, Pica, Izard, Spelke, & Dehaene, 2013). It is also possible that the two systems mutually influence each other, or that a third factor influences both (Fuhs & McNeil, 2013; Gilmore et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing the precision of preschoolers’ approximate number system representations changes their symbolic math performance

Wang

Odic

Halberda

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

102

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From early in life, humans have access to an Approximate Number System (ANS) that supports an intuitive sense of numerical quantity. Previous work in both children and adults suggests that individual differences in the precision of ANS representations correlate with symbolic math performance. However, this work has been almost entirely correlational in nature. Here we tested for a causal link between ANS precision and symbolic math performance by asking whether a temporary modulation of ANS precision changes symbolic math performance. First we replicated a recent finding that 5-year-old children make more precise ANS discriminations when starting with easier trials and gradually progressing to harder ones, compared to the reverse. Next, we show that this brief modulation of ANS precision influenced children’s performance on a subsequent symbolic math task, but not a vocabulary task. In a supplemental experiment we present evidence that children who performed ANS discriminations in a random trial order showed intermediate performance both on the ANS task and the symbolic math task, compared to the children who made ordered discriminations. Thus, our results point to a specific causal link from the ANS to symbolic math performance.

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“…In recent years, many studies reported the existence of a relationship between arithmetic performance or math ability, and the value of the Weber fraction, both in children (e.g., Libertus, Feigenson, & Halberda, 2011;Inglis, Attridge, Batchelor, & Gilmore, 2011, experiment 1) and in adults (e.g., DeWind & Brannon, 2012;Guillaume, Nys, Mussolin, & Content, 2013;Halberda, Ly, Wilmer, Naiman, & Germine, 2012;Libertus, Odic, & Halberda, 2012;Nys & Content, 2012;Nys, Ventura, Fernandes, Querido, Leybaert, & Content, 2013). Notwithstanding these positive findings, contradictory results were also reported, with several studies failing to observe any significant correlation between ANS acuity (computed from such comparison tasks) and arithmetic competence in children Sasanguie, Göbel, Moll, Smets, Reynvoet, 2013;see also De Smedt, Noël, Gilmore, & Ansari, 2013, for a short review) or in adults (e.g., Castronovo & Göbel, 2012, experiment 1;Inglis et al, 2011, experiment 2;Price, Palmer, Battista, & Ansari, 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Assessing the Approximate Number System: no relation between numerical comparison and estimation tasks

Guillaumé

Gevers

2015

Psychological Research

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Whether our general numerical skills and the mathematical knowledge that we acquire at school are entwined is a debated issue, which many researchers are still striving to investigate.The findings reported in the literature are actually inconsistent; some studies emphasised the existence of a relationship between the acuity of the Approximate Number System (ANS) and arithmetic competence, while some others did not observe any significant correlation. One potential explanation of the discrepancy might stem from the evaluation of the ANS itself. In the present study, we correlated two measures used to index ANS acuity with arithmetic performance. These measures were the Weber fraction (w), computed from a numerical comparison task and the Coefficient of Variation (CV), computed from a numerical estimation task. Arithmetic performance correlated with estimation CV but not with comparison w. We further investigated the meaning of this result by taking the relationship between w and CV into account. We expected a tight relation as both these measures are believed to assess ANS acuity. Crucially however, w and CV did not correlate with each other. Moreover, the value of w was modulated by the congruity of the relation between numerical magnitude and nonnumerical visual cues, potentially accounting for the lack of correlation between the measures. Our findings thus challenge the overuse of w to assess ANS acuity and more generally put into question the relevance of correlating this measure with arithmetic without any deeper understanding of what they are really indexing.Abstract word count: 243 words.

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Does math education modify the approximate number system? A comparison of schooled and unschooled adults

Cited by 70 publications

References 48 publications

Indexing the approximate number system

Indexing the approximate number system

Changing the precision of preschoolers’ approximate number system representations changes their symbolic math performance

Assessing the Approximate Number System: no relation between numerical comparison and estimation tasks

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