Abstract
Memory for numbers improves with age and experience. One potential source of improvement is a logarithmic-to-linear shift in children’s representations of magnitude. To test this, Kindergartners and second graders estimated the location of numbers on number lines and recalled numbers presented in vignettes (Study 1). Accuracy at number-line estimation predicted memory accuracy on a numerical recall task after controlling for the effect of age and ability to approximately order magnitudes (mapper status). To test more directly whether linear numeric magnitude representations caused improvements in memory, half of children were given feedback on their number-line estimates (Study 2). As expected, learning linear representations was again linked to memory for numerical information even after controlling for age and mapper status. These results suggest that linear representations of numerical magnitude may be a causal factor in development of numeric recall accuracy.
Highlights
Remembering numeric information is an important part of modern life
Accuracy of estimates was indexed by percent absolute error (PAE), defined as: ([| to-be-estimated value – participant’s estimate|]/numerical range) ∗ 100
We examined whether the logarithmic-to-linear shift that we induced in numerical estimation would improve memory accuracy in a numerical recall task
Summary
Remembering numeric information is an important part of modern life. Sometimes numbers must be recalled verbatim (e.g., personal identification, phone, and flight numbers); other times remembering the gist of numeric information will suffice (e.g., savings account balances, temperatures, number of students in a lecture hall). To explain age-related improvements in numeric memory, early research pointed to cognitive changes that applied to memory for numbers and other types of information (e.g., letters, syllables, animal names) Among these 10 potential causes were improved use of strategies—e.g., rehearsal (Ornstein et al, 1975), grouping (Easby-Grave, 1924; Estes, 1974), chunking (Simon, 1974; Chi, 1978), and retrieval selectivity (Samuel, 1978)—and non-strategic variables, such as speed of item identification and item ordering (Chi, 1977), attentional capacity (Dempster, 1978), resistance to interference (Leslie, 1975), search rate (Keating and Bobbit, 1978), and output buffer (Baddeley et al, 1975). Dempster (1981) found that age differences in speed of number identification was the only variable that reliably accounted for age differences in children’s memory for numbers
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