Abstract
According to a dominant view, the approximate number system (ANS) is the foundation of symbolic math abilities. Due to the importance of math abilities for education and career, a lot of research focuses on the investigation of the ANS and its relationship with math performance. However, the results are inconsistent. This might be caused by studies differing greatly regarding the operationalization of the ANS (i.e., tasks, dependent variables). Moreover, many methodological aspects vary from one study to the next. In the present review, we discuss commonly used ANS tasks and dependent variables regarding their theoretical foundation and psychometric features. We argue that the inconsistent findings concerning the relationship between ANS acuity and math performance may be partially explained by differences in reliability. Furthermore, this review summarizes methodological aspects of ANS tasks having important impacts on the results, including stimulus range, visual controls, presentation duration of the stimuli and feedback. Based on this review, we give methodological recommendations on how to assess the ANS most reliably and most validly. All important methodological aspects to be considered when designing an ANS task or comparing results of different studies are summarized in two practical checklists.
Highlights
Between 2008 and 2013 the number of publications regarding the approximate number system (ANS) increased considerably
The relationship between ANS acuity and math performance should be greater for measures with a larger reliability, like mean accuracy, than for measures with a lower reliability, like the Numerical Distance Effect (NDE)
Based on the existing evidence, recommendations for measuring the ANS in future studies were given, which can be summarized as follows: when investigating developmental changes in the ANS acuity, it is important to use a similar task for infants, children and adults
Summary
Received: 11 November 2014 Paper pending published: 19 December 2014 Accepted: 02 March 2015 Published: 17 March 2015. Due to the importance of math abilities for education and career, a lot of research focuses on the investigation of the ANS and its relationship with math performance. This might be caused by studies differing greatly regarding the operationalization of the ANS (i.e., tasks, dependent variables). We discuss commonly used ANS tasks and dependent variables regarding their theoretical foundation and psychometric features. We argue that the inconsistent findings concerning the relationship between ANS acuity and math performance may be partially explained by differences in reliability. This review summarizes methodological aspects of ANS tasks having important impacts on the results, including stimulus range, visual controls, presentation duration of the stimuli and feedback. All important methodological aspects to be considered when designing an ANS task or comparing results of different studies are summarized in two practical checklists
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