Neural coding partially accounts for the relation between children’s number line estimation and numerical comparison performance
Numerical comparison is a primary measure of the acuity of children’s approximate number system (ANS). ANS acuity is associated with key developmental outcomes such as symbolic number skill, standardized test scores and even employment outcomes(Halberda, Mazzocco, & Feigenson, 2008; Parsons & Bynner, 1997). We examine the relation between children’s performance on the numerical comparison task and the number line estimation task. It is important to characterize the relation between tasks in order to develop mathematics interventions that lead to transfer across tasks. We find that number line performance is significantly predicted by non-symbolic comparison performance for participants ranging in age from 5 to 8 years. We also evaluate, using a computational model, if the relation between the two tasks can be adequately explained based on known neural correlates of number perception. Data from humans and non-human primates characterizes neural activity corresponding to the perception of numerosities. Results of behavioral experimentation and computational modeling suggest that though neural coding of number predicts a correlation in participants’ performance on the two tasks, it cannot account for all of the variability in the human data. This is interpreted as consistent with accounts of number line estimation in which number line estimation does not rely solely on participants’ numerical perception.