Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2019 Jun;26(3):833-854. doi: 10.3758/s13423-018-1561-3.
Our ability to represent temporal, spatial, and numerical information is critical for understanding the world around us. Given the prominence of quantitative representations in the natural world, numerous cognitive, neurobiological, and developmental models have been proposed as a means of describing how we track quantity. One prominent theory posits that time, space, and number are represented by a common magnitude system, or a common neural locus (i.e., Bonn & Cantlon in Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29(1/2), 149-173, 2012; Cantlon, Platt, & Brannon in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(2), 83-91, 2009; Meck & Church in Animal Behavior Processes, 9(3), 320, 1983; Walsh in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(11), 483-488, 2003). Despite numerous similarities in representations of time, space, and number, an increasing body of literature reveals striking dissociations in how each quantity is processed, particularly later in development. These findings have led many researchers to consider the possibility that separate systems may be responsible for processing each quantity. This review will analyze evidence in favor of a common magnitude system, particularly in infancy, which will be tempered by counter evidence, the majority of which comes from experiments with children and adult participants. After reviewing the current data, we argue that although the common magnitude system may account for quantity representations in infancy, the data do not provide support for this system throughout the life span. We also identify future directions for the field and discuss the likelihood of the developmental divergence model of quantity representation, like that of Newcombe (Ecological Psychology, 2, 147-157, 2014), as a more plausible account of quantity development.
我们表示时间、空间和数量信息的能力对于理解我们周围的世界至关重要。鉴于数量表示在自然界中的突出地位，已经提出了许多认知、神经生物学和发展模型，作为描述我们如何追踪数量的一种手段。一个突出的理论假设是，时间、空间和数量由一个共同的数量系统表示，或者由一个共同的神经位置表示（即 Bonn 和 Cantlon 在《认知神经心理学》（Cognitive Neuropsychology）第 29（1/2）卷，第 149-173 页，2012 年；Cantlon、Platt 和 Brannon 在《趋势认知科学》（Trends in Cognitive Sciences）第 13（2）卷，第 83-91 页，2009 年；Meck 和 Church 在《动物行为过程》（Animal Behavior Processes）第 9（3）卷，第 320 页，1983 年；Walsh 在《趋势认知科学》（Trends in Cognitive Sciences）第 7（11）卷，第 483-488 页，2003 年）。尽管时间、空间和数量的表示有许多相似之处，但越来越多的文献揭示了每种数量在加工过程中的惊人差异，尤其是在后期发展中。这些发现使许多研究人员认为，可能有单独的系统负责处理每种数量。本综述将分析支持共同数量系统的证据，特别是在婴儿期，同时也会考虑到相反的证据，这些证据大部分来自于对儿童和成年参与者的实验。在回顾了当前的数据之后，我们认为，尽管共同数量系统可能解释了婴儿期的数量表示，但这些数据并不能支持整个生命周期的这个系统。我们还确定了该领域的未来发展方向，并讨论了类似于 Newcombe（《生态心理学》（Ecological Psychology）第 2 卷，第 147-157 页，2014 年）的数量表示发展发散模型作为数量发展更合理的解释的可能性。
