A Mechanistic Study of the Association Between Symbolic Approximate Arithmetic Performance and Basic Number Magnitude Processing Based on Task Difficulty.

Wei Wei,Yulia Kovas,Wanying Deng,Chen Chen,Jie He,Jike Qin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01551

Abstract

Two types of number magnitude processing – semantic and spatial – are significantly correlated with children’s arithmetic performance. However, it remains unclear whether these abilities are independent predictors of symbolic approximate arithmetic performance. The current study addressed this question by assessing 86 kindergartners (mean age of 5 years and 7 months) on semantic number processing (number comparison task), spatial number processing (number line estimation task), and symbolic approximate arithmetic performance with different levels of difficulty. The results showed that performance on both tasks of number magnitude processing was significantly correlated with symbolic approximate arithmetic performance, but the strength of these correlations was moderated by the difficulty level of the arithmetic task. The simple symbolic approximate arithmetic task was equally related to both tasks. In contrast, for more difficult symbolic approximate arithmetic tasks, the contribution of number comparison ability was smaller than that of the number line estimation ability. These results indicate that the strength of contribution of the different types of numerical processing depends on the difficulty of the symbolic approximate arithmetic task.

Highlights

Arithmetic competency is an important aspect of mathematical ability
The current study aimed to investigate the relations between two basic numerical magnitude processing abilities and symbolic approximate arithmetic performance
The results supported the two hypotheses proposed. Both number magnitude comparison and number line estimation abilities were significantly correlated with the performance on symbolic approximate arithmetic tasks

Summary

Introduction

Arithmetic competency is an important aspect of mathematical ability. Over the past few decades, many studies have investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying exact arithmetic ability (De Smedt et al, 2013; Moeller et al, 2015; see Arsalidou and Taylor, 2011; Schneider et al, 2017, for reviews). Less is known about the cognitive mechanisms underlying symbolic approximate arithmetic calculations, such as solving the following task: “give an approximate answer for 38 × 21 in 5 s.”. Symbolic approximate arithmetic performance refers to the ability to provide an approximate answer rather than an exact one (Gilmore et al, 2007; McNeil et al, 2011; Xenidou-Dervou et al, 2015). This ability plays an important role in mathematical learning (Xenidou-Dervou et al, 2013).

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