IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0153072.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Acquisition of the Cardinal Principle Coincides with Improvement in Approximate Number System Acuity in Preschoolers

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Shusterman
  • Emily Slusser
  • Justin Halberda
  • Darko Odic

Abstract

Human mathematical abilities comprise both learned, symbolic representations of number and unlearned, non-symbolic evolutionarily primitive cognitive systems for representing quantities. However, the mechanisms by which our symbolic (verbal) number system becomes integrated with the non-symbolic (non-verbal) representations of approximate magnitude (supported by the Approximate Number System, or ANS) are not well understood. To explore this connection, forty-six children participated in a 6-month longitudinal study assessing verbal number knowledge and non-verbal numerical acuity. Cross-sectional analyses revealed a strong relationship between verbal number knowledge and ANS acuity. Longitudinal analyses suggested that increases in ANS acuity were most strongly related to the acquisition of the cardinal principle, but not to other milestones of verbal number acquisition. These findings suggest that experience with culture and language is intimately linked to changes in the properties of a core cognitive system.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Shusterman & Emily Slusser & Justin Halberda & Darko Odic, 2016. "Acquisition of the Cardinal Principle Coincides with Improvement in Approximate Number System Acuity in Preschoolers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-22, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0153072
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153072
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153072
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153072&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0153072?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michèle M M Mazzocco & Lisa Feigenson & Justin Halberda, 2011. "Preschoolers' Precision of the Approximate Number System Predicts Later School Mathematics Performance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(9), pages 1-8, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marie-Claire Cammaerts & Roger Cammaerts, 2021. "Young Ants Already Possess a Mental Number Line," International Journal of Biology, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(2), pages 1-1, December.
    2. Saeeda Khanum & Rubina Hanif & Elizabeth S Spelke & Ilaria Berteletti & Daniel C Hyde, 2016. "Effects of Non-Symbolic Approximate Number Practice on Symbolic Numerical Abilities in Pakistani Children," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    3. Carmen Brankaer & Pol Ghesquière & Bert De Smedt, 2014. "Children’s Mapping between Non-Symbolic and Symbolic Numerical Magnitudes and Its Association with Timed and Untimed Tests of Mathematics Achievement," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-11, April.
    4. Tristan Roger & Wael Bousselmi & Patrick Roger & Marc Willinger, 2018. "Another law of small numbers: patterns of trading prices in experimental markets," CEE-M Working Papers hal-01954921, CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro.
    5. Lukowski, Sarah L. & Rosenberg-Lee, Miriam & Thompson, Lee A. & Hart, Sara A. & Willcutt, Erik G. & Olson, Richard K. & Petrill, Stephen A. & Pennington, Bruce F., 2017. "Approximate number sense shares etiological overlap with mathematics and general cognitive ability," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 67-74.
    6. Julie Castronovo & Silke M Göbel, 2012. "Impact of High Mathematics Education on the Number Sense," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(4), pages 1-16, April.
    7. Kyungmin Lee & Soohyun Cho, 2019. "Visuo-spatial (but not verbal) executive working memory capacity modulates susceptibility to non-numerical visual magnitudes during numerosity comparison," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Danielle Hoffmann & Christophe Mussolin & Romain Martin & Christine Schiltz, 2014. "The Impact of Mathematical Proficiency on the Number-Space Association," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, January.
    9. Rasheda Khanam & Son Nghiem, 2016. "Family Income and Child Cognitive and Noncognitive Development in Australia: Does Money Matter?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(3), pages 597-621, June.
    10. Sarah A Gray & Robert A Reeve, 2014. "Preschoolers' Dot Enumeration Abilities Are Markers of Their Arithmetic Competence," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-11, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0153072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.