Differences between literates and illiterates on symbolic but not nonsymbolic numerical magnitude processing

Abstract

The study of numerical magnitude processing provides a unique opportunity to examine interactions between phylogenetically ancient systems of semantic representations and those that are the product of enculturation. While nonsymbolic representations of numerical magnitude are processed similarly by humans and nonhuman animals, symbolic representations of numerical magnitude (e.g., Hindu-Arabic numerals) are culturally invented symbols that are uniquely human. Here, we report a comparison of symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical magnitude processing in two groups of participants who differ substantially in their level of literacy. In this study, level of literacy is used as an index of level of school-based numeracy skill. The data from these groups demonstrate that while the processing of nonsymbolic numerical magnitude (numerical distance effect) is unaffected by an individual's level of literacy, the processing of Hindu-Arabic numerals differs between literate and illiterate individuals who live in a literature culture and have limited symbolic recognition skills. These findings reveal that nonsymbolic numerical magnitude processing is unaffected by enculturation, while the processing of numerical symbols is modulated by literacy.

How do symbolic and non-symbolic numerical magnitude processing skills relate to individual differences in children's mathematical skills? A review of evidence from brain and behavior

“…in press; however see Zebian & Ansari, 2012 for data indicating that literacy and schooling affect symbolic but not non-symbolic numerical magnitude processing). As children with DD would be slow and error prone in these mathematical activities, they would possibly benefit less from these mathematics activities on their ANS acuity, relative to their control peers.…”

Modeling individual differences in response time and accuracy in numeracy

“…For tasks like those in Experiments 1 and 2, the slope of the function relating RT and difficulty is often used as a dependent variable (e.g., Zebian & Ansari, 2012; Price et al, 2012). However, in Experiments 1 and 2, the functions were not linear and so, strictly speaking, it is not appropriate to fit linear functions to them and use the slopes of the functions as a measure of differences among individuals.…”

Differences in arithmetic performance between Chinese and German adults are accompanied by differences in processing of non-symbolic numerical magnitude

“…Three studies examined whether schooling has an impact on non-symbolic numerical magnitude processing skills. Zebian and Ansari [11] compared Syrian adults who had attended no more than one year of schooling with Syrian adults who had attended school for more than 10 years. While the two groups did not differ with respect to ER in a non-symbolic numerical magnitude task, literate participants answered significantly faster than illiterate participants.…”