Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2016

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.

Comments

Copyright: © 2016 Shusterman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article may also be found online at the following link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153072

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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