The Spatial Foundations of Time and Number Representation

时间和数字表示的空间基础

• 批准号: 7750693
• 负责人: Dustin J. Merritt
• 金额: $ 5.38万
• 依托单位: DUKE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7750693
• 关键词: Address; Adult; Affect; Behavioral; Categories; Child; Church; Clinical; Code; Cognition; Cognitive; Complex; Computers; Decision Making; Development; Dimensions; Disease; Dyslexia; Exhibits; Foundations; Future; Generic Drugs; Genetic; Health; Hemispatial Neglect; Human; Infant; Intelligence; Investigation; Judgment; Language; Learning; Left; Lesion; Light; Linguistics; Link; Macaca mulatta; Maps; Measures; Metaphor; Monkeys; Motor; Nature; Neurobiology; Organism; Parietal; Participant; Patients; Phylogenetic Analysis; Procedures; Process; Psyche structure; Research; Right-On; Role; Series; Short-Term Memory; Side; Stimulus; Structure; Testing; Thinking; Time; Training; Visual Fields; abstracting; base; disability; domain mapping; experience; mathematical ability; mathematics disability; memory process; processing speed; research study; spatial neglect; stem; touchscreen

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the proposed research is to study the relationship between the representation of time, space, and number and how language affects interactions between these representations. An important question is whether abstract concepts like number or time, are reasoned about by mapping them onto concrete structures such as space. There is some evidence that number is mapped onto space (Dehaene et al, 1993) and also that space is used to think about time (Boroditsky, 2000; Casasanto, 2007). It is unclear however, how these cross-domain mappings develop and whether language is a critical factor in their emergence. To explore these issues, I propose to test rhesus monkeys, 8 month old infants, and adult humans using a bisection procedure that examines how an irrelevant dimension influences decisions about another task-relevant dimension. Participants will first be trained to classify "large" and "small" anchor values for a given dimension (e.g. space, time, or number). Subsequently, participants will be given probe trials in which they will classify intermediate values as belonging to the "large" or "small" category. We will then determine the point of subjective equality (PSE) in which participants are equally likely to classify the stimulus as the "large" or "small". Next, we will conduct a cross-dimensional bisection test in which an irrelevant dimension is varied (e.g. space) while participants make bisection judgments about a relevant dimension (e.g. time). The purpose is to determine whether the values of the irrelevant dimension influence judgments of the relevant dimension, and secondly, whether dimensions influence each other symmetrically or asymmetrically (e.g. does space influence time judgments more than time influences space judgments?). These experiments will shed light on the development of abstract thinking in humans, and also help clarify the foundational roles of language and perceptual processes in the representation of time and number. Given previous research showing links between disruptions in spatial and numerical processing, our research may have implications for the development of some numerical processing disorders and dyscalculia. Prior research (demonstrates clear links between disruptions in spatial processing and disruptions in numerical processing (Zorzi et al, 2002).Understanding the links between space, time, and number, and how these representations develop, may help explain the relationship between disruptions in spatial processing and other cognitive abilities. This research may therefore provide theoretical groundwork for clinical behavioral screens for complexes of learning difficulties that may be associated with mappings between number, space, and time.

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的目的是研究时间，空间和数字的表征之间的关系，以及语言如何影响这些表征之间的相互作用。一个重要的问题是，是否抽象的概念，如数字或时间，是通过映射到具体的结构，如空间。有一些证据表明，数字映射到空间（Dehaene et al，1993），空间也用于思考时间（Boroditsky，2000; Casasanto，2007）。然而，目前还不清楚这些跨域映射是如何发展的，以及语言是否是它们出现的关键因素。为了探讨这些问题，我建议测试恒河猴，8个月大的婴儿，和成年人使用二分法，探讨如何一个无关的尺寸影响另一个任务相关的尺寸的决定。参与者将首先接受培训，以便对给定维度（例如空间、时间或数字）的“大”和“小”锚值进行分类。随后，参与者将进行探索试验，他们将中间值分类为属于“大”或“小”类别。然后，我们将确定主观平等点（PSE），参与者同样有可能将刺激归类为“大”或“小”。接下来，我们将进行一个跨维度的二分法测试，其中一个不相关的维度（例如空间）是不同的，而参与者对一个相关的维度（例如时间）进行二分法判断。其目的是确定不相关维度的值是否影响相关维度的判断，其次，维度是否对称或不对称地相互影响（例如，空间对时间判断的影响大于时间对空间判断的影响？）。这些实验将揭示人类抽象思维的发展，并有助于澄清语言和感知过程在时间和数字表征中的基础作用。鉴于先前的研究表明空间和数字处理中断之间的联系，我们的研究可能会对一些数字处理障碍和计算障碍的发展产生影响。先前的研究（证明了空间处理中断和数字处理中断之间的明确联系（Zorzi et al，2002）。了解空间，时间和数字之间的联系，以及这些表征如何发展，可能有助于解释空间处理中断和其他认知能力之间的关系。因此，这项研究可能会提供理论基础的临床行为筛选复杂的学习困难，可能与数字，空间和时间之间的映射。