Examining the Development and Functional Role of Spatial-Numerical Representations Pubblico

Abstract

Spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) have been documented across development and species. Yet the functional significance of such ubiquitous associations remains unclear. To test the prominent hypothesis that SNAs are related to mathematical proficiency, we examined the relation between SNAs and math proficiency in 5- to 8-year-old children. We found evidence of SNAs with two paradigms, a magnitude comparison task and the place-the-number task, a novel paradigm for examining SNAs with minimal task demands, with a significant correlation between the two, suggesting they measure a stable SNA (e.g., left-to-right oriented mental number line). Although there were no correlations between children's SNAs on the place-the-number task and any measure of math ability, children's SNAs on the magnitude comparison task were negatively correlated with their performance on a measure of cross-modal arithmetic, suggesting that children with stronger SNAs were less competent at cross-modal arithmetic, an effect that held when controlling for age and general cognitive abilities. Despite some evidence for a negative relation between SNAs and math ability in adulthood, we argue that the effect here may reflect task demands specific to the magnitude comparison task and not an impediment of the mental number line. Moreover, we suggest that differences in task demands could account for contradictory findings in the literature. We conclude with a discussion of the multi-faceted nature of the mental number line and how these different features may relate to mathematical ability.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Examining the Development and Functional Role of Spatial-Numerical Associations...............1

Present Study..............................................................................................................5

Method.......................................................................................................................7

Results......................................................................................................................16

General Discussion......................................................................................................24

References.................................................................................................................30

Table 1......................................................................................................................39

Table 2......................................................................................................................40

Figure 1.....................................................................................................................41

Figure 2.....................................................................................................................42

Figure 3.....................................................................................................................43

Figure 4.....................................................................................................................44

Figure 5.....................................................................................................................45

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Degree	MA
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, General Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental
Parola chiave	Spatial-Numerical Associations Numerical Cognition Mental Number Line
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Lourenco, Stella, Emory University
Committee Members	Lilienfeld, Scott O, Emory University Dilks, Daniel D, Emory University

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