Symbolic Number Abilities Predict Later Approximate Number System Acuity in Preschool Children

Abstract

An ongoing debate in research on numerical cognition concerns the extent to which the approximate number system and symbolic number knowledge influence each other during development. The current study aims at establishing the direction of the developmental association between these two kinds of abilities at an early age. Fifty-seven children of 3–4 years performed two assessments at 7 months interval. In each assessment, children's precision in discriminating numerosities as well as their capacity to manipulate number words and Arabic digits was measured. By comparing relationships between pairs of measures across the two time points, we were able to assess the predictive direction of the link. Our data indicate that both cardinality proficiency and symbolic number knowledge predict later accuracy in numerosity comparison whereas the reverse links are not significant. The present findings are the first to provide longitudinal evidence that the early acquisition of symbolic numbers is an important precursor in the developmental refinement of the approximate number representation system.

Symbolic number skills predict growth in nonsymbolic number skills in kindergarteners.

“…We included this crucial control here, as did Mussolin et al (2014) and Matejko et al (2016). In all three cases, the direction of influence was found to be from symbolic to nonsymbolic tasks, and not the other way around.…”

Does the Approximate Number System Serve as a Foundation for Symbolic Mathematics?

“…Members of this community who have had some formal schooling in math displayed significantly better ANS acuity than members of the community with less formal schooling (Piazza, Pica, Izard, Spelke, & Dehaene, 2013). Mussolin, Nys, Content, & Leybaert (2014) twice assessed the ANS acuity and symbolic math ability of preschool children 7 months apart. Children’s performance at time 1 on the full battery of symbolic math assessments and a number word knowledge test predicted accuracy at time 2 on the non-symbolic comparison task.…”

Cognição numérica de crianças pré-escolares brasileiras pela ZAREKI-K

“…Em outras palavras, as crianças pré-escolares conseguem discriminar quantidades, quando essas se diferem em uma relação equivalente ao dobro (por exemplo, 8 vs. 4, 16 vs. 8 e 32 vs. 16), porém quando a relação é menor (por exemplo: 6 vs. 4, 12 vs. 8 e 24 vs. 16), falham na discriminação entre menor e maior, pois este ato depende fundamentalmente da relação entre quantidades (Sekuler & Mierkiewicz, 1977). A capacidade para julgamento numérico pode predizer o desenvolvimento de habilidades quantitativas secundárias adquiridas via ensino formal (Mussolin, Nys, Content, & Leybaert, 2014), as quais requerem a aprendizagem de relações precisas entre as quantidades (Xu, Spelke, & Goddard, 2005).…”