Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology and Child Health, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
Clinical Psychology Center "Dedicare", Foligno, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2022 Apr 4;12(1):5629. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-09709-5.
When asked to estimate the number of items in the visual field, neurotypical adults are more precise and rapid if the items are clustered into subgroups compared to when they are randomly distributed. It has been suggested that this phenomenon, termed "groupitizing", relies on the recruitment of arithmetical calculation strategies and subitizing. Here the role of arithmetical skills in groupitizing was investigated by measuring the groupitizing effect (or advantage) in a sample of children and adolescents with and without math learning disability (dyscalculia). The results showed that when items were grouped, both groups of participants showed a similar advantage on sensory precision and response time in numerosity estimates. Correlational analyses confirmed a lack of covariation between groupitizing advantage and math scores. Bayesian statistics on sensory precision sustained the frequentist analyses providing decisive evidence in favor of no groups difference on groupitizing advantage magnitude (LBF = - 0.44) and no correlation with math scores (LBF = - 0.57). The results on response times, although less decisive, were again in favor of the null hypothesis. Overall, the results suggest that the link between groupitizing and mathematical abilities cannot be taken for granted, calling for further investigations on the factors underlying this perceptual phenomenon.
当被要求估计视野中的项目数量时，如果项目被分成子组，与随机分布相比，神经典型成年人会更准确和快速。有人认为，这种现象被称为“分组”，依赖于算术计算策略和亚数量(subitizing)的运用。本研究通过测量有和没有数学学习障碍（计算障碍）的儿童和青少年样本中的分组效应（或优势），来调查算术技能在分组中的作用。结果表明，当项目分组时，两组参与者在数量估计的感官精度和反应时间上都表现出相似的优势。相关分析证实，分组优势与数学成绩之间没有相互关系。基于感官精度的贝叶斯统计支持了频率分析，为分组优势幅度（LBF=-0.44）上没有组间差异以及与数学成绩无相关性（LBF=-0.57）提供了决定性证据。尽管反应时间的结果不太确定，但再次支持了零假设。总体而言，结果表明分组与数学能力之间的联系不能被视为理所当然，需要进一步研究这一感知现象的基础因素。
