Sasanguie Delphine, Defever Emmy, Van den Bussche Eva, Reynvoet Bert
Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2011 Jan;136(1):73-80. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.10.004. Epub 2010 Nov 13.
The development of number processing is generally studied by examining the performance on basic number tasks (comparison task, same-different judgment, and priming task). Using these tasks, so-called numerical distance effects are obtained. All these effects are generally explained by assuming a magnitude representation related to a mental number line: magnitudes are represented from left to right with partially overlapping representations for nearby numbers. In this study, we compared the performance of adults on these different tasks using non-symbolic stimuli. First, we investigated whether the effects obtained in these behavioral tasks are reliable. Second, we examined the relation between the three different effects. The results showed that the observed effects in the case of the comparison task and the same-different task proved to be reliable. The numerical distance effect obtained in the priming task, however, was not reliable. In addition, a correlation was found between the distance effects in the comparison task and the same-different task. The priming distance effect did not correlate with the other two effects. These results suggest important differences between distance effects obtained under automatic and intentional task instructions regarding the use of them as indices of mathematical ability.
数字加工的发展通常通过考察在基本数字任务（比较任务、异同判断和启动任务）上的表现来进行研究。利用这些任务，可以获得所谓的数字距离效应。所有这些效应通常通过假设一种与心理数字线相关的大小表征来解释：大小从左到右进行表征，相邻数字的表征部分重叠。在本研究中，我们使用非符号刺激比较了成年人在这些不同任务上的表现。首先，我们调查了在这些行为任务中获得的效应是否可靠。其次，我们考察了这三种不同效应之间的关系。结果表明，在比较任务和异同任务中观察到的效应被证明是可靠的。然而，在启动任务中获得的数字距离效应并不可靠。此外，在比较任务和异同任务中的距离效应之间发现了相关性。启动距离效应与其他两种效应不相关。这些结果表明，在自动和有意任务指令下获得的距离效应在作为数学能力指标的用途方面存在重要差异。
