approximate number system
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PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258886
Author(s):  
Antonya Marie Gonzalez ◽  
Darko Odic ◽  
Toni Schmader ◽  
Katharina Block ◽  
Andrew Scott Baron

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.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3072
Author(s):  
Andrea Messina ◽  
Davide Potrich ◽  
Ilaria Schiona ◽  
Valeria Anna Sovrano ◽  
Giorgio Vallortigara

It is widely acknowledged that vertebrates can discriminate non-symbolic numerosity using an evolutionarily conserved system dubbed Approximate Number System (ANS). Two main approaches have been used to assess behaviourally numerosity in fish: spontaneous choice tests and operant training procedures. In the first, animals spontaneously choose between sets of biologically-relevant stimuli (e.g., conspecifics, food) differing in quantities (smaller or larger). In the second, animals are trained to associate a numerosity with a reward. Although the ability of fish to discriminate numerosity has been widely documented with these methods, the molecular bases of quantities estimation and ANS are largely unknown. Recently, we combined behavioral tasks with molecular biology assays (e.g c-fos and egr1 and other early genes expression) showing that the thalamus and the caudal region of dorso-central part of the telencephalon seem to be activated upon change in numerousness in visual stimuli. In contrast, the retina and the optic tectum mainly responded to changes in continuous magnitude such as stimulus size. We here provide a review and synthesis of these findings.


Author(s):  
Stefan Buijsman

AbstractIn recent years philosophers have used results from cognitive science to formulate epistemologies of arithmetic (e.g. Giaquinto in J Philos 98(1):5–18, 2001). Such epistemologies have, however, been criticised, e.g. by Azzouni (Talking about nothing: numbers, hallucinations and fictions, Oxford University Press, 2010), for interpreting the capacities found by cognitive science in an overly numerical way. I offer an alternative framework for the way these psychological processes can be combined, forming the basis for an epistemology for arithmetic. The resulting framework avoids assigning numerical content to the Approximate Number System and Object Tracking System, two systems that have so far been the basis of epistemologies of arithmetic informed by cognitive science. The resulting account is, however, only a framework for an epistemology: in the final part of the paper I argue that it is compatible with both platonist and nominalist views of numbers by fitting it into an epistemology for ante rem structuralism and one for fictionalism. Unsurprisingly, cognitive science does not settle the debate between these positions in the philosophy of mathematics, but I it can be used to refine existing epistemologies and restrict our focus to the capacities that cognitive science has found to underly our mathematical knowledge.


Author(s):  
Tayyaba Abid ◽  
Saeeda Khanum

The ability to process numbers approximately also called, approximate number system (ANS) is related and predictive of school mathematics performance. This system is functional since birth and continue to become more precise throughout the development. Developmental change of approximate number system over the growing years has not been investigated in Pakistan so the current study bridged this gap by investigating it from 261 participants ranging from 5 to 72 years of age. Panamath task being the robust measure of ANS acuity was administered. Results revealed that numerical acuity got precise with an increase in age. However, most sophisticated acuity has been shown around age 46-50 as compared to the western population showing its peak around 30 years of age. Delay in developing approximate number system acuity across the groups as compared to the trend reported in the western population raises many questions in terms of cultural variations and practices contributing to the development of number sense. The study has important implications for the development of number sense cross-culturally keeping in view the evidence from various cultures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne H. van Hoogmoed ◽  
Marije D. E. Huijsmans ◽  
Evelyn H. Kroesbergen

The approximate number system (ANS) theory and the ANS mapping account have been the most prominent theories on non-symbolic numerosity processing and symbolic number processing respectively, over the last 20 years. Recently, there is a growing debate about these theories, mainly based on research in adults. However, whether the ANS theory and ANS mapping account explain the processing of non-symbolic numerosity and symbolic number in childhood has received little attention. In the current ERP study, we first examined whether non-symbolic numerosity processing in 9-to-12-year-old children (N = 34) is intuitive, as proposed by the ANS theory. Second, we examined whether symbolic number processing is rooted in non-symbolic numerosity processing, as proposed the ANS mapping account. ERPs were measured during four same-different match-to-sample tasks with non-symbolic numerosities, symbolic numbers, and combinations of both. We found no evidence for intuitive processing of non-symbolic numerosity. Instead, children processed the visual features of non-symbolic stimuli more automatically than the numerosity itself. Moreover, children do not seem to automatically activate non-symbolic numerosity when processing symbolic numbers. These results challenge the ANS theory and ANS mapping account in 9-to-12-year-old children.


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