How to rapidly construct a spatial-numerical representation in preliterate children (at least temporarily)
How to rapidly construct a spatial-numerical representation in preliterate children (at least temporarily)
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DOI：
10.1111/desc.12296
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发表时间：
2016-01-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Cress, Ulrike
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Patro, Katarzyna;Fischer, Ursula;Cress, Ulrike
数字的空间处理已经成为人类数学思维的基本属性之一。然而，数字空间关系如何以及何时发展是一个高度争议的问题。一种主流观点认为，数字和左/右空间方向之间的联系是基于与阅读和写相关的方向性经验构建的。然而，在还不能读写的学龄前儿童中，已经观察到了一些早期形式的数字-空间联系。由于识字经验显然不是数字空间效应所必需的，我们正在寻找这种关联的其他潜在来源。在此，我们提出并检验了一个假设，即学龄前儿童的认知中可以在空间定向的视觉-运动活动的基础上快速构建数字-空间链接。我们训练了3岁和4岁的儿童进行非数字空间移动任务（从左到右或从右到左），通过触摸屏儿童必须移动青蛙穿过池塘。训练结束后，孩子们必须执行一项数字比较任务。在从左到右的训练后，我们观察到了类似SNARC的效果（左侧对较小数字的反应更快，右侧对较大数字的反应更快），而在从右到左的训练后，则出现了相反的效果。这些结果首次显示了儿童在学习读写之前的视觉运动活动和数字空间联想之间的因果关系。我们认为，简单的活动，如手工游戏，在特定的社会中占主导地位，可能会塑造儿童的数字空间协会的方式类似于终身阅读训练。
Spatial processing of numbers has emerged as one of the basic properties of humans' mathematical thinking. However, how and when number-space relations develop is a highly contested issue. One dominant view has been that a link between numbers and left/right spatial directions is constructed based on directional experience associated with reading and writing. However, some early forms of a number-space link have been observed in preschool children who cannot yet read and write. As literacy experience is evidently not necessary for number-space effects, we are searching for other potential sources of this association. Here we propose and test a hypothesis that the number-space link can be quickly constructed in preschool children's cognition on the basis of spatially oriented visuo-motor activities. We trained 3- and 4-year-old children with a non-numerical spatial movement task (left-to-right or right-to-left), where via touch screen children had to move a frog across a pond. After the training, children had to perform a numerosity comparison task. After left-to-right training, we observed a SNARC-like effect (reactions to smaller numbers were faster on the left side, and reactions to larger numbers on the right side), and after right-to-left training a reverse effect. These results are the first to show a causal link between visuo-motor activities and number-space associations in children before they learn to read and write. We argue that simple activities, such as manual games, dominant in a given society, might shape number-space associations in children in a way similar to lifelong reading training.