Numerical Order Processing in Children: From Reversing the Distance‐Effect to Predicting Arithmetic
ABSTRACT
Recent work has demonstrated that how we process the relative order—ordinality—of numbers may be key to understanding how we represent numbers symbolically, and has proven to be a robust predictor of more sophisticated math skills in both children and adults. However, it remains unclear whether numerical ordinality is primarily a by‐product of other numerical processes, such as familiarity with overlearned count sequence, or is in fact a fundamental property of symbolic number processing. In a sample of nearly 1,500 children, we show that the reversed distance effect—a hallmark of symbolic ordinal processing—obtains in children as young as first grade, and is larger for less familiar sets of numbers. Furthermore, we show that the children's efficiency in evaluating the simplest ordered sequences (e.g., 2‐3‐4, 6‐7‐8) captures more unique variance in mental arithmetic than any other type of numerical sequence, and that this result cannot be accounted for by counting ability. Indeed, performance on just five such trials captured more unique mental arithmetic variance than any of several other numerical tasks assessed here. In sum, our results are consistent with the notion that ordinality is a fundamental property of how children process numerical symbols, that this property helps underpin more complex math processing, and that it shapes numerical processing even at the earliest stages of elementary education.
Number of times cited: 15
- Stephan E. Vogel, Nikolaus Koren, Stefan Falb, Martina Haselwander, Anna Spradley, Philip Schadenbauer, Sandra Tanzmeister and Roland H. Grabner, Automatic and intentional processing of numerical order and its relationship to arithmetic performance, Acta Psychologica, 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.12.001, 193, (30-41), (2019).
- Delphine Sasanguie and Helene Vos, About why there is a shift from cardinal to ordinal processing in the association with arithmetic between first and second grade, Developmental Science, 21, 5, (2018).
- Ian M. Lyons and Sian L. Beilock, Characterizing the neural coding of symbolic quantities, NeuroImage, 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.062, 178, (503-518), (2018).
- Francesco Sella, Daniela Lucangeli and Marco Zorzi, Spatial order relates to the exact numerical magnitude of digits in young children, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.09.001, (2018).
- Anna A. Matejko, Jane Hutchison and Daniel Ansari, Numerical order and the intraparietal sulcus: Developmental specialization of the left intraparietal sulcus for symbolic ordinal processing, Cortex, 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.11.027, (2018).
- Anna A. Matejko and Daniel Ansari, How do individual differences in children's domain specific and domain general abilities relate to brain activity within the intraparietal sulcus during arithmetic? An fMRI study, Human Brain Mapping, 38, 8, (3941-3956), (2017).
- Helene Vos, Delphine Sasanguie, Wim Gevers and Bert Reynvoet, The role of general and number-specific order processing in adults’ arithmetic performance, Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 29, 4, (469), (2017).
- Delphine Sasanguie, Ian M. Lyons, Bert De Smedt and Bert Reynvoet, Unpacking symbolic number comparison and its relation with arithmetic in adults, Cognition, 165, (26), (2017).
- Stephan E. Vogel, Trent Haigh, Gerrit Sommerauer, Melanie Spindler, Clemens Brunner, Ian M. Lyons and Roland H. Grabner, Processing the order of symbolic numbers: A reliable and unique predictor of arithmetic fluency, Journal of Numerical Cognition, 3, 2, (288), (2017).
- Bert Reynvoet and Delphine Sasanguie, The Symbol Grounding Problem Revisited: A Thorough Evaluation of the ANS Mapping Account and the Proposal of an Alternative Account Based on Symbol–Symbol Associations, Frontiers in Psychology, 07, (2016).
- I.M. Lyons, S.E. Vogel and D. Ansari, On the ordinality of numbers, The Mathematical Brain Across the Lifespan, 10.1016/bs.pbr.2016.04.010, (187-221), (2016).
- Rebecca Merkley and Daniel Ansari, Why numerical symbols count in the development of mathematical skills: evidence from brain and behavior, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 10, (14), (2016).
- T. Iuculano, Neurocognitive accounts of developmental dyscalculia and its remediation, The Mathematical Brain Across the Lifespan, 10.1016/bs.pbr.2016.04.024, (305-333), (2016).
- Jane E. Hutchison, Ian M. Lyons and Daniel Ansari, More Similar Than Different: Gender Differences in Children's Basic Numerical Skills Are the Exception Not the Rule, Child Development, , (2018).
- Kinga Morsanyi, Bianca M.C.W. van Bers, Patrick A. O’Connor and Teresa McCormack, Developmental Dyscalculia is Characterized by Order Processing Deficits: Evidence from Numerical and Non-Numerical Ordering Tasks, Developmental Neuropsychology, 10.1080/87565641.2018.1502294, (1-27), (2018).
