Price Gavin R, Wilkey Eric D, Yeo Darren J
Department of Psychology & Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203, United States.
Department of Psychology & Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203, United States.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2017 May;176:47-57. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2017.03.012. Epub 2017 Apr 2.
A growing body of research suggests that the processing of nonsymbolic (e.g. sets of dots) and symbolic (e.g. Arabic digits) numerical magnitudes serves as a foundation for the development of math competence. Performance on magnitude comparison tasks is thought to reflect the precision of a shared cognitive representation, as evidence by the presence of a numerical ratio effect for both formats. However, little is known regarding how visuo-perceptual processes are related to the numerical ratio effect, whether they are shared across numerical formats, and whether they relate to math competence independently of performance outcomes. The present study investigates these questions in a sample of typically developing adults. Our results reveal a pattern of associations between eye-movement measures, but not their ratio effects, across formats. This suggests that ratio-specific visuo-perceptual processing during magnitude processing is different across nonsymbolic and symbolic formats. Furthermore, eye movements are related to math performance only during symbolic comparison, supporting a growing body of literature suggesting symbolic number processing is more strongly related to math outcomes than nonsymbolic magnitude processing. Finally, eye-movement patterns, specifically fixation dwell time, continue to be negatively related to math performance after controlling for task performance (i.e. error rate and reaction time) and domain general cognitive abilities (IQ), suggesting that fluent visual processing of Arabic digits plays a unique and important role in linking symbolic number processing to formal math abilities.
越来越多的研究表明，非符号（如圆点集合）和符号（如阿拉伯数字）数值大小的处理是数学能力发展的基础。大小比较任务的表现被认为反映了一种共享认知表征的精度，两种格式都存在数值比率效应就是证据。然而，关于视觉感知过程如何与数值比率效应相关、它们是否在不同数值格式间共享，以及它们是否独立于表现结果与数学能力相关，我们所知甚少。本研究在发育正常的成年人样本中探究了这些问题。我们的结果揭示了不同格式间眼动测量指标之间存在关联模式，但不存在比率效应。这表明在大小处理过程中，非符号和符号格式的特定比率视觉感知处理是不同的。此外，眼动仅在符号比较过程中与数学表现相关，这支持了越来越多的文献观点，即符号数字处理比非符号大小处理与数学结果的关联更强。最后，在控制了任务表现（即错误率和反应时间）和一般领域认知能力（智商）后，眼动模式，特别是注视停留时间，仍然与数学表现呈负相关，这表明对阿拉伯数字的流畅视觉处理在将符号数字处理与形式数学能力联系起来方面发挥着独特而重要的作用。
