Doctoral Dissertation Research: Integrating Numerical and Linguistic Knowledge in the Exact Interpretation of Numerals

在自然语言中，表达数量信息的词语随处可见。因此，我们大脑中负责数字的那部分和负责语言的那部分必须有一种方式来相互沟通。有人认为，语言和我们大脑中管理空间信息的部分也必须以这种方式进行交流。然而，还没有研究对儿童的数字知识进行测试，看看他们是否能预测语言知识中对数量敏感的部分。该项目的目标是调查儿童对数字的准确解释中数字与语言的联系。虽然数字通常被认为是精确的，但它们也可以有，例如，“至少”的解释（例如，吃6个甜甜圈也是吃了5个甜甜圈）。还有什么对孩子们知道什么时候数字是准确的，什么时候是不准确的能力很重要？研究人员将测试孩子们的词汇量，看看他们是否能预测准确的解释。研究人员还将测试儿童认知的一部分，称为执行功能，即我们大脑中专门用于工作记忆，注意力和抑制的部分，以查看它们是否具有预测性。通过这种方式，该研究项目将更好地了解我们大脑的不同组成部分如何协同工作，使我们能够绘制一种非常重要的数字解释类型，这对儿童后期的定量和数学思维很有价值。这个项目将研究单语西班牙语者的这种发展，因为有一些证据表明，数字思维可以在不同的语言之间变化。本研究以录像记录的真值判断任务（TVJT）为因变量，测量儿童的正确性解释。这一过程将提高研究人员的能力，以衡量区分度使用的数字比以前的研究中使用的更高。儿童的数字知识将使用来自认知发展的传统任务来测量数字估计：近似数字系统（ANS），使用Panamath;计数，使用Give-A-Number;使用Number Sets的数字感和分区;以及Number-Line任务。这些措施应提供的自然语言量词的准确解释的数值认知的属性的证据，并使研究人员能够模拟语言和数字如何相互作用，介导的执行function.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Words that convey quantity information are everywhere in natural language. Consequently, there must be a way for the part of our mind dedicated to number and the part of our mind dedicated to language to communicate with each other. It has been argued that language and the part of our mind that manages spatial information must also communicate in this way. However, no research has taken tests of children’s number knowledge to see if they are predictive of the quantity-sensitive parts of the language knowledge. The goal of this project is to investigate the number-language connection in children’s exact interpretations of numbers. Though numbers are usually thought of as exact, they can also have, for example, “at least” interpretations (e.g. to eat 6 donuts is to also have eaten 5 donuts). What else matters for children’s abilities to know when a number is exact and when it isn’t? The investigators will test children’s vocabularies to see if they predict exact interpretations. The researchers will also test a part of children’s cognition called executive function, namely, the parts of our minds dedicated to working memory, attention and inhibition, to see whether they are predictive. In this way, the research project will lead to a better understanding of how the different components of our mind work together to allow us to draw a very important type of interpretation of numbers, which are valuable for later quantitative and mathematical thinking in children. This project will study this development in monolingual Spanish-speakers because there is some evidence that numerical thinking can vary across languages. The study includes a video-recorded Truth-Value Judgment Task (TVJT) to measure children’s exactness interpretations as the dependent variable. This procedure will improve the researchers' ability to measure discriminability by using numbers higher than those used in previous research. Children’s numerical knowledge will be measured using conventional tasks from cognitive development to measure numerical estimation: the approximate number system (ANS), using Panamath; counting, using Give-A-Number; number sense and partitioning using Number Sets; and the Number-Line Tasks. These measures should provide evidence of properties of numerical cognition in the exact interpretation of natural language quantifiers and enable the investigators to model how language and number interact, mediated by executive function.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.