Abstract
Enumeration, the ability to report an amount of elements, differs as a function of range. Subitizing (quantities 1–4) is an accurate and quick process with reaction times (RTs) minimally affected by the number of presented elements within its range. In the counting range (range of 5–9 elements), RTs increase linearly. Subitizing was considered to be a pre-attentive process for many years. However, recently we found that subitizing could be facilitated by improving engagement of attention. Specifically, brief alerting cues increase attentional engagement and reduced RTs in the subitizing range. Moreover, previous studies found that students with developmental dyscalculia (DD) have a smaller than normal subitizing range (3 vs. 4) and their alerting attentional system is impaired. In the current study, we explored whether an alerting cue would increase the subitizing range of adults suffering from DD from 3 to 4. For controls, alerting increased accuracy rates and facilitated enumeration of quantities only in the subitizing range. Participants with DD presented a larger alerting effect; an alerting cue enhanced their RTs in all ranges, but did not increase their smaller than normal subitizing range or accuracy. Our results suggest that both domain-general and domain-specific abilities contribute to the mechanism of enumeration and related to developmental dyscalculia.
Highlights
In everyday life, numerical information plays a fundamental role in many daily activities and has an impact on educational and employment achievements (Gevers, Cohen Kadosh, & Gebuis, 2016; Reyna, Nelson, Han, & Dieckmann, 2009)
Taking together that alerting cues were found to enhance attentional bias toward global processing in general (Van Vleet et al, 2011; Weinbach & Henik, 2011) and subitizing in particular (Gliksman et al, 2016), and that those with developmental dyscalculia (DD) have a smaller than normal subitizing range and deficit in alerting attention, the goal of the current study was to explore whether the impaired subitizing mechanism in those with DD could be improved by engagement of alerting of attention; namely, whether an alerting cue would increase the subitizing range for those with DD
In order to explore the effect of alerting on the subitizing range, three analyses were performed: accuracy rates, reaction times (RTs) and subitizing range
Summary
Numerical information plays a fundamental role in many daily activities (such as calculating change, estimating time) and has an impact on educational and employment achievements (Gevers, Cohen Kadosh, & Gebuis, 2016; Reyna, Nelson, Han, & Dieckmann, 2009). Behavioral studies reported impaired developmental of the “number-sense” in children with DD (Piazza et al, 2010), and imaging studies found that a focal brain injury in the IPS can cause primary acalculia (Ashkenazi, Henik, Ifergane, & Shelef, 2008; Cohen et al, 2018; Gliksman, Naparstek, Ifergane, & Henik, 2017). Those with DD present reduced activity in the IPS when requested to decide which presented array has more elements (Price, Holloway, Räsänen, Vesterinen, & Ansari, 2007), and their IPS was found to be atypical in parameters of length, depth and reduced gray matter volume
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