Université de Paris, LaPsyDÉ, CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France.
Université de Paris, LaPsyDÉ, CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France; Institut Universitaire de France, France.
Cognition. 2019 Sep;190:137-142. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.05.005. Epub 2019 May 9.
In Piaget's theory of number development, children do not possess a true concept of number until they are able to reason on numerical quantity regardless of changes in other nonnumerical magnitudes, such as length. Recent studies have echoed this result by arguing that abstracting number from nonnumerical dimensions of magnitude is a developmental milestone and a strong predictor of mathematics achievement. However, the mechanisms supporting such abstraction remain largely underspecified. We aimed to study how identification of the numerical equivalence in a Piaget-like estimation task by 6-year-old children is affected by (a) the degree of interference between number and nonnumerical magnitudes and (b) children's spontaneous orientation to numerosity. Six-year-old children first performed a card sorting task assessing their spontaneous orientation towards numerosity, spacing, or item size in a set of dots. Then, they completed a Piaget-like same/different numerical estimation task using two rows of dots in which the length ratio between the two rows varied systematically. Children were less likely to accept the numerical equivalence in the Piaget-like estimation task (a) as the difference in spacing between the dots increased and (b) as the children were more spontaneously oriented towards spacing over number in the card sorting task. Our results suggest that abstracting number depends on its saliency, which varies both as a function of the context (i.e., length ratio between the two rows) and of individual differences in children's sensitivity to the numerical aspects of their environment. These factors could be at the root of the observed development of performance in the seminal number-conservation task, which appears as a progressive abstraction of number rather than a conceptual shift, as Piaget hypothesized.
在皮亚杰的数量发展理论中，儿童只有在能够根据数量进行推理，而不受长度等其他非数量大小变化的影响时，才拥有真正的数量概念。最近的研究也证实了这一结果，即从数量的非数量维度抽象出数量是一个发展的里程碑，也是数学成就的强有力预测指标。然而，支持这种抽象的机制在很大程度上仍未得到明确说明。我们旨在研究 6 岁儿童在类似于皮亚杰的估计任务中识别数字等价物的能力如何受到以下两个因素的影响：（a）数量和非数量大小之间的干扰程度，以及（b）儿童对数量的自发取向。6 岁的儿童首先进行了一项卡片分类任务，评估他们在一组点中对数量、间距或项目大小的自发取向。然后，他们完成了一个类似于皮亚杰的相同/不同数值估计任务，使用两行点，其中两行之间的长度比系统地变化。当点之间的间距增加时，儿童在类似于皮亚杰的估计任务中更不容易接受数值的等价性（a）；当儿童在卡片分类任务中更自发地倾向于间距而不是数量时，他们更不容易接受数值的等价性（b）。我们的结果表明，抽象数量取决于其显著性，而显著性既取决于上下文（即两行之间的长度比），也取决于儿童对环境中数量方面的敏感性的个体差异。这些因素可能是在经典数量守恒任务中观察到的表现发展的根源，这表现为数量的逐步抽象，而不是皮亚杰假设的概念转变。
