Bulf Hermann, de Hevia Maria Dolores, Macchi Cassia Viola
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy.
Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMI), Italy.
Dev Sci. 2016 May;19(3):394-401. doi: 10.1111/desc.12315. Epub 2015 Jun 12.
Numbers are represented as ordered magnitudes along a spatially oriented number line. While culture and formal education modulate the direction of this number-space mapping, it is a matter of debate whether its emergence is entirely driven by cultural experience. By registering 8-9-month-old infants' eye movements, this study shows that numerical cues are critical in orienting infants' visual attention towards a peripheral region of space that is congruent with the number's relative position on a left-to-right oriented representational continuum. This finding provides the first direct evidence that, in humans, the association between numbers and oriented spatial codes occurs before the acquisition of symbols or exposure to formal education, suggesting that the number line is not merely a product of human invention.
数字沿着具有空间方向的数轴表示为有序的量级。虽然文化和正规教育会调节这种数字-空间映射的方向，但其出现是否完全由文化经验驱动仍是一个有争议的问题。通过记录8-9个月大婴儿的眼动，本研究表明数字线索对于将婴儿的视觉注意力引向与数字在从左到右定向的表征连续体上的相对位置一致的空间周边区域至关重要。这一发现提供了首个直接证据，表明在人类中，数字与定向空间编码之间的关联在获得符号或接受正规教育之前就已出现，这表明数轴不仅仅是人类发明的产物。
