Wang Li, Sun Yuhua, Zhou Xinlin
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal UniversityBeijing, China; Siegler Center for Innovative Learning, Advanced Innovation Center for Future Education, Beijing Normal UniversityBeijing, China.
Institute of Education Science, Xinjiang Normal University Urumqi, China.
Front Psychol. 2016 Dec 20;7:1966. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01966. eCollection 2016.
Previous studies have observed inconsistent relations between the acuity of the Approximate Number System (ANS) and mathematical achievement. In this paper, we hypothesize that the relation between ANS acuity and mathematical achievement is influenced by fluency; that is, the mathematical achievement test covering a greater expanse of mathematical fluency may better reflect the relation between ANS acuity and mathematics skills. We explored three types of mathematical achievement tests utilized in this study: Subtraction, graded, and semester-final examination. The subtraction test was designed to measure the mathematical fluency. The graded test was more fluency-based than the semester-final examination, but both involved the same mathematical knowledge from the class curriculum. A total of 219 fifth graders from primary schools were asked to perform all three tests, then given a numerosity comparison task, a visual form perception task (figure matching), and a series of other tasks to assess general cognitive processes (mental rotation, non-verbal matrix reasoning, and choice reaction time). The findings were consistent with our expectations. The relation between ANS acuity and mathematical achievement was particularly clearly reflected in the participants' performance on the visual form perception task, which supports the domain-general explanations for the underlying mechanisms of the relation between ANS acuity and math achievement.
以往的研究观察到近似数量系统（ANS）的敏锐度与数学成绩之间的关系并不一致。在本文中，我们假设ANS敏锐度与数学成绩之间的关系受流畅性影响；也就是说，涵盖更广泛数学流畅性的数学成绩测试可能能更好地反映ANS敏锐度与数学技能之间的关系。我们探究了本研究中使用的三种数学成绩测试：减法测试、分级测试和期末考试。减法测试旨在测量数学流畅性。分级测试比期末考试更基于流畅性，但两者都涉及课程中相同的数学知识。共有219名来自小学的五年级学生被要求完成所有这三项测试，然后进行数量比较任务、视觉形式感知任务（图形匹配）以及一系列其他任务以评估一般认知过程（心理旋转、非言语矩阵推理和选择反应时间）。研究结果与我们的预期一致。ANS敏锐度与数学成绩之间的关系在参与者的视觉形式感知任务表现中尤为明显地体现出来，这支持了对ANS敏锐度与数学成绩之间关系潜在机制的领域通用解释。
