Abstract
Memory for numbers improves with age. One source of this improvement may be learning linear spatial–numeric associations, but previous evidence for this hypothesis likely confounded memory span with quality of numerical magnitude representations and failed to distinguish spatial–numeric mappings from other numeric abilities, such as counting or number word-cardinality mapping. To obviate the influence of memory span on numerical memory, we examined 39 3- to 5-year-olds’ ability to recall one spontaneously produced number (1–20) after a delay, and the relation between numeric recall (controlling for non-numeric recall) and quality of mapping between symbolic and non-symbolic quantities using number-line estimation, give-a-number estimation, and counting tasks. Consistent with previous reports, mapping of numerals to space, to discrete quantities, and to numbers in memory displayed a logarithmic-to-linear shift. Also, linearity of spatial–numeric mapping correlated strongly with multiple measures of numeric recall (percent correct and percent absolute error), even when controlling for age and non-numeric memory. Results suggest that linear spatial–numeric mappings may aid memory for number over and above children’s other numeric skills.
Highlights
Both in school and everyday life, children are presented with a potentially dazzling succession of numbers to remember
Previous work has indicated that development of linear representations of numerical magnitudes profoundly expands children’s quantitative thinking (Opfer and Siegler, 2012)
It improves children’s ability to estimate the positions of numbers on number lines (Siegler and Opfer, 2003; Siegler and Booth, 2004; Opfer and Siegler, 2007), to estimate the measurements of continuous quantities (Thompson and Siegler, 2010) and the quantity of discrete objects (Opfer et al, 2010), to categorize numbers according to size (Laski and Siegler, 2007; Opfer and Thompson, 2008), and to estimate and learn the answers to arithmetic problems (Booth and Siegler, 2008; Kim and Opfer, 2017; Qin et al, 2017)
Summary
Both in school and everyday life, children are presented with a potentially dazzling succession of numbers to remember. Some numbers must be remembered exactly, such as phone numbers and the answers to arithmetic problems. Others only need to be remembered approximately, such as the number of children in one’s class, the amount of money in one’s piggy bank, or the temperature forecast for tomorrow’s weather. When confronted with a series of numbers in either type of situation—e.g., a digit span task (Dempster, 1981) or a vignette (Brainerd and Gordon, 1994)— young children recall numbers much less accurately than older children and adults. We examine whether developmental changes in numerical representation accounts for individual differences in memory for numbers. We test how children’s memory for numbers relates to their memory for non-numeric information (e.g., color) and to their knowledge of numeric magnitude, indexed by their ability to map a number to a spatial location on a number line, to map a discrete number of objects to a number word, and to count
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