Predicting sights from sounds: 6-month-olds’ intermodal numerical abilities

Abstract

Although the psychophysics of infants’ non-symbolic number representations has been well studied, less is known about other characteristics of the Approximate Number System (ANS) in young children. Here, 3 experiments explored the extent to which the ANS yields abstract representations by testing infants’ ability to transfer approximate number representations across sensory modalities. These experiments showed that 6-month old infants matched the approximate number of sounds they heard to the approximate number of sights they saw, looking longer at visual arrays that numerically mis-matched a previously heard auditory sequence. This looking preference was observed when sights and sounds mismatched by 1:3 and 1:2 ratios, but not by a 2:3 ratio. These findings suggest that infants can compare numerical information obtained in different modalities using representations stored in memory. Furthermore, the acuity of 6-month old infants’ comparisons of intermodal numerical sequences appears to parallel that of their comparisons of unimodal sequences.

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

“…This number sense is supported by the Approximate Number System (ANS; for review see Dehaene & Brannon, 2011; Feigenson, Dehaene & Spelke, 2004; Halberda & Odic, 2014; Nieder & Dehaene, 2009), which is functional in newborn infants (Izard, et al, 2009), is used by adults lacking formal math education (Frank, Everett, Fedorenko, & Gibson, 2008; Pica, Lemer, Izard, & Dehaene, 2004), operates across sensory modalities (Barth, Kanwisher, & Spelke, 2003; Feigenson, 2011; Izard et al, 2009; Libertus, Feigenson, & Halberda, 2013a; Nieder, 2012), and has been demonstrated in a wide range of non-human species (Cantlon, Platt & Brannon, 2009; Dehaene, Dehaene-Lambertz & Cohen, 1998). The ANS represents numbers in a noisy, imprecise fashion, with the imprecision of its numerical representations growing with the target numerosity.…”

Dissociation between small and large numerosities in newborn infants

“…Second, infants are able to discriminate numerosities with a finer ratio difference when stimuli are redundant in two modalities (Jordan, Suanda & Brannon, ). Third and foremost, infants, children and adults are able to compare numerosities across stimuli presented in different formats and modalities (Barth, Kanwisher & Spelke, ; Barth, Lamont, Lipton & Spelke, ; Feigenson, ; Izard et al., ), and a precise measurement of the acuity of numerical representations in adults showed no cost for switching modality (Barth et al ., ).…”

Links Between the Intuitive Sense of Number and Formal Mathematics Ability

“…Despite these wide differences in formal mathematical ability, a more basic sense of number appears in all typically developing humans and in a range of animals. Infants, including newborns, recognize numerical changes to arrays (even controlling for nonnumerical dimensions such as surface area), compare numbers of items across sensory modalities, and add and subtract approximate quantities (e.g., Feigenson, 2011;Izard, Sann, Spelke, & Streri, 2009;McCrink & Wynn, 2004;Xu & Spelke, 2000). Other nonverbal populations, including rats, fish, monkeys, and birds, also exhibit numerical representations across diverse tasks (Brannon & Merritt, 2011;Feigenson, Dehaene, & Spelke, 2004 for reviews), which suggests that representing imprecise numerical information is likely an evolved, core capacity.…”