He Yunfeng, Zhou Xinlin, Shi Dexin, Song Hairong, Zhang Hui, Shi Jiannong
Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2016 Jul 12;7:1052. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01052. eCollection 2016.
Approximate number system (ANS) acuity and mathematical ability have been found to be closely associated in recent studies. However, whether and how these two measures are causally related still remain less addressed. There are two hypotheses about the possible causal relationship: ANS acuity influences mathematical performances, or access to math education sharpens ANS acuity. Evidences in support of both hypotheses have been reported, but these two hypotheses have never been tested simultaneously. Therefore, questions still remain whether only one-direction or reciprocal causal relationships existed in the association. In this work, we provided a new evidence on the causal relationship between ANS acuity and arithmetic ability. ANS acuity and mathematical ability of elementary-school students were measured sequentially at three time points within one year, and all possible causal directions were evaluated simultaneously using cross-lagged regression analysis. The results show that ANS acuity influences later arithmetic ability while the reverse causal direction was not supported. Our finding adds a strong evidence to the causal association between ANS acuity and mathematical ability, and also has important implications for educational intervention designed to train ANS acuity and thereby promote mathematical ability.
近期研究发现，近似数系统（ANS）敏锐度与数学能力密切相关。然而，这两种测量方法是否存在因果关系以及如何存在因果关系，仍未得到充分探讨。关于可能的因果关系有两种假设：ANS敏锐度影响数学表现，或者接受数学教育会提高ANS敏锐度。支持这两种假设的证据都有报道，但这两种假设从未同时得到检验。因此，关于这种关联中是否仅存在单向或双向因果关系的问题仍然存在。在这项研究中，我们提供了关于ANS敏锐度与算术能力之间因果关系的新证据。在一年内的三个时间点对小学生的ANS敏锐度和数学能力进行了连续测量，并使用交叉滞后回归分析同时评估了所有可能的因果方向。结果表明，ANS敏锐度会影响后期的算术能力，而反向因果关系则不成立。我们的发现为ANS敏锐度与数学能力之间的因果关联增添了有力证据，也对旨在训练ANS敏锐度从而提高数学能力的教育干预具有重要意义。
