Abstract
Basic numerical abilities are generally assumed to influence more complex cognitive processes involving numbers, such as mathematics. Yet measuring non-symbolic number abilities remains challenging due to the intrinsic correlation between numerical and non-numerical dimensions of any visual scene. Several methods have been developed to generate non-symbolic stimuli controlling for the latter aspects but they tend to be difficult to replicate or implement. In this study, we describe the NASCO method, which is an extension to the method popularized by Dehaene, Izard, and Piazza (2005). Their procedure originally controlled for two visual dimensions that are mediated by Number: Total Area and Item Size (i.e., N = TA/IS). Here, we additionally propose to control for another twofold dimension related to the array extent, which is also mediated by Number: Convex Hull Area and Mean Occupancy (i.e., N = CH/MO). We illustrate the NASCO method with a MATLAB app—NASCO app—that allows easy generation of dot arrays for a visually controlled assessment of non-symbolic numerical abilities. Results from a numerical comparison task revealed that the introduction of this twofold dimension manipulation substantially affected young adults’ performance. In particular, we did not replicate the relation between non-symbolic number abilities and arithmetic skills. Our findings open the debate about the reliability of previous results that did not take into account visual features related to the array extent. We then discuss the strengths of NASCO method to assess numerical ability, as well as the benefits of its straightforward implementation in NASCO app for researchers.
Highlights
Basic numerical abilities are generally assumed to influence more complex cognitive processes involving numbers, such as mathematics
Using a non-symbolic stimulus set designed with NASCO app in a numerical magnitude judgment task with young adults, we replicated the well-known numerical ratio effect on performance: closer numerical magnitudes were more difficult to compare than more distant ones
Participant performed very well when Total occupied Area (TA) varied together with numerical magnitude
Summary
Basic numerical abilities are generally assumed to influence more complex cognitive processes involving numbers, such as mathematics. Recent studies further supported this perspective by showing that humans have a spontaneous preference for the numerical aspect of large sets rather than for other continuous visual features (Cicchini, Anobile, & Burr, 2016; Ferrigno, Jara-Ettinger, Piantadosi, & Cantlon, 2017). Notwithstanding such findings, some authors challenged the existence of a specific cognitive system devoted to numerical processing and alternatively ventured that. Previous studies showed that numerical judgments are substantially impacted by the total surface occupied by all items (Guillaume, Nys, Mussolin, & Content, 2013), by the individual size of the elements (Henik, Gliksman, Kallai, & Leibovich, 2017), by the item density (Dakin, Tibber, Greenwood, Kingdom, & Morgan, 2011), and by the size of the convex hull (CH) (i.e., the smallest convex polygon encompassing all elements; Norris, Clayton, Gilmore, Inglis, & Castronovo, 2018)
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