Developmental changes in numerosity and area perception in school-age children.

Abstract

Humans can quickly estimate the quantity of objects in their environment through the Approximate Number System (ANS). However, the developmental trajectories of numerical and spatial perception in school-aged children are not well understood. This study aimed to address this issue by examining the performance of 7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and 11-year-olds in the dot-number and dot-area tasks. In each trial, participants were presented with pairs of dots array simultaneously and were asked to indicate which array had a greater quantity of dots in the dot-number task, and which array had a larger overall area of dots in the dot-area task. We manipulated number cues and area cues of the dots array in these two tasks, creating three different relationships between dot-number and dot-area: congruent, neutral, and incongruent. Our results showed school-aged children's ability to estimate numerosity improved significantly after the age of 7, with no apparent improvement observed between the ages of 9 and 11. This indicates a marked growth in acuity in the perception of numerical quantities. Conversely, the capacity to estimate area showed consistent stability across the various age groups examined. Additionally, our results demonstrated a pronounced difficulty among participants in ignoring numerical cues when assessing dot quantity or dot area, as opposed to non-numerical cues. This highlights a preferential sensitivity to numerical information in cognitive processing. These findings provide valuable insights into the cognitive development underlying quantity perception and may offer practical guidance for educational practices.