Electrophysiological Evidence of Space‐Number Associations in 9‐Month‐Old Infants

Abstract

Infant research is providing accumulating evidence that number-space mappings appear early in development. Here, a Posner cueing paradigm was used to investigate the neural mechanisms underpinning the attentional bias induced by nonsymbolic numerical cues in 9-month-old infants (N = 32). Event-related potentials and saccadic reaction time were measured to the onset of a peripheral target flashing right after the offset of a centered small or large numerical cue, with the location of the target being either congruent or incongruent with the number's relative position on a left-to-right oriented representational continuum. Results indicated that the cueing effect induced by numbers on infants' orienting of eye gaze brings about sensory facilitation in processing visual information at the cued location.Roberta Bettoni and Margaret Addabbo have contributed equally to this work and have co-first authorship.We thank Carlo Toneatto for programming the experiment, Martin de Luca for technical support, and Alessandra Barone, Martina Borsani, and Michela Cotroneo for their help in testing participants. We are also deeply indebted to the infants who took part in the study and their parents. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Electrophysiological Evidence for A Number–Action Mapping in Infancy

“…Here, we investigated brain activity by recording ERPs of 3- to 4-month-old infants while presented with both action and numerical information. We implemented a cueing paradigm [ 56 , 57 ] where infants were presented with two sequential images, the first image displaying a hand (closed or open) and the second a numerosity array (4 or 12 dots). These hand-number pairings were either congruent (i.e., small numerosity paired with a small hand opening) or incongruent (i.e., large numerosity paired with a small hand opening).…”

“…The technique is especially suitable to investigate infant cognition, as it allows us to study cognitive processes without overt motor responses. In line with recent studies in infants [ 56 , 57 ], we implemented a cueing paradigm, where infants were presented with images displaying congruent (e.g., a large numerosity primed by a large hand opening) and incongruent (e.g., a large numerosity primed by a small hand opening) number–hand couplings. The rationale behind these stimuli choices was to convey information of relative magnitude, as opposed to conveying information of an action itself, by varying the amplitude of a hand opening.…”