Dietrich Julia Felicitas, Nuerk Hans-Christoph, Klein Elise, Moeller Korbinian, Huber Stefan
Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Schleichstraße 6, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany.
Psychol Res. 2019 Apr;83(3):590-612. doi: 10.1007/s00426-017-0907-1. Epub 2017 Aug 29.
Previous research has proposed that the approximate number system (ANS) constitutes a building block for later mathematical abilities. Therefore, numerous studies investigated the relationship between ANS acuity and mathematical performance, but results are inconsistent. Properties of the experimental design have been discussed as a potential explanation of these inconsistencies. In the present study, we investigated the influence of set size and presentation duration on the association between non-symbolic magnitude comparison and math performance. Moreover, we focused on strategies reported as an explanation for these inconsistencies. In particular, we employed a non-symbolic magnitude comparison task and asked participants how they solved the task. We observed that set size was a significant moderator of the relationship between non-symbolic magnitude comparison and math performance, whereas presentation duration of the stimuli did not moderate this relationship. This supports the notion that specific design characteristics contribute to the inconsistent results. Moreover, participants reported different strategies including numerosity-based, visual, counting, calculation-based, and subitizing strategies. Frequencies of these strategies differed between different set sizes and presentation durations. However, we found no specific strategy, which alone predicted arithmetic performance, but when considering the frequency of all reported strategies, arithmetic performance could be predicted. Visual strategies made the largest contribution to this prediction. To conclude, the present findings suggest that different design characteristics contribute to the inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between non-symbolic magnitude comparison and mathematical performance by inducing different strategies and additional processes.
先前的研究提出，近似数量系统（ANS）构成了后期数学能力的一个基石。因此，众多研究调查了ANS敏锐度与数学成绩之间的关系，但结果并不一致。实验设计的特性已被讨论为这些不一致性的一个潜在解释。在本研究中，我们调查了集合大小和呈现持续时间对非符号数量比较与数学成绩之间关联的影响。此外，我们关注了作为这些不一致性的一种解释而报告的策略。具体而言，我们采用了一项非符号数量比较任务，并询问参与者他们是如何解决该任务的。我们观察到，集合大小是非符号数量比较与数学成绩之间关系的一个显著调节因素，而刺激的呈现持续时间并未调节这种关系。这支持了这样一种观点，即特定的设计特征导致了结果的不一致。此外，参与者报告了不同的策略，包括基于数量、视觉、计数、基于计算和一眼识数策略。这些策略的频率在不同的集合大小和呈现持续时间之间有所不同。然而，我们没有发现单独就能预测算术成绩的特定策略，但当考虑所有报告策略的频率时，算术成绩是可以被预测的。视觉策略对这一预测的贡献最大。总之，本研究结果表明，不同的设计特征通过诱导不同的策略和额外的过程，导致了关于非符号数量比较与数学成绩之间关系的不一致发现。
