scholarly journals Intensive math training does not affect approximate number acuity: Evidence from a three-year longitudinal curriculum intervention

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Sullivan ◽  
Michael C. Frank ◽  
David Barner
Keyword(s):  
Number System ◽  
Math Performance ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Approximate Number System ◽  
Math Intervention ◽  
Math Success ◽  
Large N ◽  
Curriculum Intervention ◽  
Induced Changes ◽  
Longitudinal Dataset

Does nonverbal, approximate number acuity predict mathematics performance? Some studies report a correlation between acuity of representations in the Approximate Number System (ANS) and early math achievement, while others do not. Few previous reports have addressed (1) whether reported correlations remain when other domain-general capacities are considered, and (2) whether such correlations are causal. In the present study, we addressed both questions using a large (N = 204) 3-year longitudinal dataset from a successful math intervention, which included a wide array of non-numerical cognitive tasks. While we replicated past work finding correlations between approximate number acuity and math success, these correlations were very small when other domain-general capacities were considered. Also, we found no evidence that changes to math performance induced changes to approximate number acuity, militating against one class of causal accounts.

scholarly journals The relationship between children’s approximate number certainty and symbolic mathematics

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-65
Author(s):  
Carolyn Baer ◽  
Darko Odic
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
Number System ◽  
Math Performance ◽  
Approximate Number System ◽  
Mathematical Skills ◽  
Math Ability ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Number Perception ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Symbolic Number

Why do some children excel in mathematics while others struggle? A large body of work has shown positive correlations between children’s Approximate Number System (ANS) and school-taught symbolic mathematical skills, but the mechanism explaining this link remains unknown. One potential mediator of this relationship might be children’s numerical metacognition: children’s ability to evaluate how sure or unsure they are in understanding and manipulating numbers. While previous work has shown that children’s math abilities are uniquely predicted by symbolic numerical metacognition, we focus on the extent to which children’s non-symbolic/ANS numerical metacognition, in particular sensitivity to certainty, might be predictive of math ability, and might mediate the relationship between the ANS and symbolic math. A total of 72 children aged 4–6 years completed measures of ANS precision, ANS metacognition sensitivity, and the Test of Early Mathematical Ability (TEMA-3). Our results replicate many established findings in the literature, including the correlation between ANS precision and the TEMA-3, particularly on the Informal subtype questions. However, we did not find that ANS metacognition sensitivity was related to TEMA-3 performance, nor that it mediated the relationship between the ANS and the TEMA-3. These findings suggest either that metacognitive calibration may play a larger role than metacognitive sensitivity, or that metacognitive differences in the non-symbolic number perception do not robustly contribute to symbolic math performance.

scholarly journals The effect of gender stereotypes on young girls’ intuitive number sense

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258886
Author(s):  
Antonya Marie Gonzalez ◽  
Darko Odic ◽  
Toni Schmader ◽  
Katharina Block ◽  
Andrew Scott Baron
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Number Sense ◽  
Number System ◽  
Math Performance ◽  
Approximate Number System ◽  
Math Ability ◽  
Young Girls ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Math Test ◽  
The Impact

Despite the global importance of science, engineering, and math-related fields, women are consistently underrepresented in these areas. One source of this disparity is likely the prevalence of gender stereotypes that constrain girls’ and women’s math performance and interest. The current research explores the developmental roots of these effects by examining the impact of stereotypes on young girls’ intuitive number sense, a universal skill that predicts later math ability. Across four studies, 762 children ages 3–6 were presented with a task measuring their Approximate Number System accuracy. Instructions given before the task varied by condition. In the two control conditions, the task was described to children either as a game or a test of eyesight ability. In the experimental condition, the task was described as a test of math ability and that researchers were interested in whether boys or girls were better at math and counting. Separately, we measured children’s explicit beliefs about math and gender. Results conducted on the combined dataset indicated that while only a small number of girls in the sample had stereotypes associating math with boys, these girls performed significantly worse on a test of Approximate Number System accuracy when it was framed as a math test rather than a game or an eyesight test. These results provide novel evidence that for young girls who do endorse stereotypes about math and gender, contextual activation of these stereotypes may impair their intuitive number sense, potentially affecting their acquisition of formal mathematics concepts and developing interest in math-related fields.

“Approximate number system” training: A perceptual learning approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Cochrane ◽  
Lucy Cui ◽  
Edward M. Hubbard ◽  
C. Shawn Green
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Number System ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Approximate Number System

scholarly journals Compromised approximate number system acuity in extremely preterm school-aged children

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (12) ◽  
pp. 1109-1114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Hellgren ◽  
Justin Halberda ◽  
Lea Forsman ◽  
Ulrika Ådén ◽  
Melissa Libertus
Keyword(s):  
Number System ◽  
Approximate Number System ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Extremely Preterm

Children’s Approximate Number System in Haptic Modality

Perception ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 44-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Gimbert ◽  
Edouard Gentaz ◽  
Valérie Camos ◽  
Karine Mazens
Keyword(s):  
Number System ◽  
Approximate Number System ◽  
Haptic Modality

The number sense does not represent numbers, but cardinality comparisons

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Luis Bermúdez
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Number Sense ◽  
Number System ◽  
Rational Numbers ◽  
Approximate Number System

Abstract Against Clarke and Beck's proposal that the approximate number system (ANS) represents natural and rational numbers, I suggest that the experimental evidence is better accommodated by the (much weaker) thesis that the ANS represents cardinality comparisons. Cardinality comparisons do not stand in arithmetical relations and being able to apply them does not involve basic arithmetical concepts and operations.

Representation of pure magnitudes in ANS

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Gross ◽  
William Kowalsky ◽  
Tyler Burge
Keyword(s):  
Number System ◽  
Approximate Number System

Abstract According to Clarke and Beck (C&B), the approximate number system (ANS) represents numbers. We argue that the ANS represents pure magnitudes. Considerations of explanatory economy favor the pure magnitudes hypothesis. The considerations C&B direct against the pure magnitudes hypothesis do not have force.

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