Spatial concepts of position and the acquisition of numerical knowledge

数字知识对于积极和成功地参与现代社会是非常重要的。根据最近的理论方法，获取越来越精确的数值量级知识是数值发展的共同核心。假定数值震级是沿着一条心算数轴表示的，并且可以在空间上进行局部化。假设的数字表征的空间特征提出了一个问题，即对位置的空间概念（例如，在前面和后面）的理解是否与数字大小及其关系的处理有关。尽管假设的位置空间概念的理解与早期数学技能习得的相关性已经通过在各种诊断方法中使用任务来调查这种理解来反映出来，但它尚未得到系统的研究。该项目旨在研究儿童对位置空间概念的理解在数字知识获取中的作用。因此，我们将在一项从幼儿园倒数第二年到幼儿园最后一年的纵向研究中，检验学龄前儿童对位置空间概念的理解与他们的数字知识之间的关系。此外，我们将在干预研究中训练学龄前儿童对位置空间概念的理解，并寻找对其数字知识的影响。

Numerical knowledge is of great and increasing importance for an active and successful participation in modern society. According to recent theoretical approaches, the acquisition of increasingly precise numerical magnitude knowledge is the common core of numerical development. It is assumed that numerical magnitudes are represented along a mental number line and can be localized spatially. The assumed spatial character of numerical representations raises the question whether an understanding of spatial concepts of position (e.g., in front of and behind) are relevant for the processing of numerical magnitudes and their relationships. Although the assumed relevance of the understanding of spatial concepts of position for the acquisition of early mathematical skills is already reflected by the use of tasks to investigate this understanding in various diagnostic approaches, it has not yet been systematically investigated. The proposed project aims at investigating the role of children’s understanding of spatial concepts of position for the acquisition of numerical knowledge. We will therefore examine the association between preschool children’s understanding of spatial concepts of position and their numerical knowledge in a longitudinal study following children from their penultimate year of kindergarten to their final year of kindergarten. In addition, we will train preschool children's understanding of spatial concepts of position in an intervention study and look for effects on their numerical knowledge.