Rodríguez Cristina, Ferreira Roberto A
Millennium Nucleus for the Science of Learning (MiNSoL), Talca, Chile.
Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca, Chile.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 10;13:1065600. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1065600. eCollection 2022.
Number sense has been systematically measured using dot comparison tasks. However, recent studies have reported that performance on dot comparison might be influenced inhibitory control and visual properties of dot arrays. In the present study, we analysed the influence of continuous magnitude, inhibitory control, and numerical ratio on the dot comparison performance of preschool children.
Participants were 517 preschool children from 13 different schools in Chile. Children completed a dot comparison and two inhibitory control tasks. Gebuis and Reynvoet method was used to create well-controlled dot arrays for use in the dot comparison task. A logistic mixed effects model was conducted to predict participants' dot comparison accuracy. Continuous magnitude and ratio were entered as level-1 predictors and inhibitory control as level-2 predictors.
The results showed that all predictors made a significant contribution to dot comparison accuracy. Furthermore, a significant double interaction (inhibitory control x continuous magnitude) and a triple interaction (inhibitory control x continuous magnitude x ratio) showed that the contribution of inhibitory control skills in dot comparison accuracy depends on the continuous properties of dot arrays and ratio.
These findings suggest that preschool children rely more on continuous magnitudes than numerosity in dot comparison tasks. They also indicate that the greater children's inhibitory control, the more able they are to respond based on numerosity in fully incongruent trials, particularly when ratio is low (easiest items). Taken together, the above findings support the competing processes account provided that both ANS and inhibitory control skills influence performance on dot comparison tasks.
数字感已通过点比较任务进行系统测量。然而，最近的研究报告称，点比较任务的表现可能会受到抑制控制和点阵视觉属性的影响。在本研究中，我们分析了连续量、抑制控制和数字比例对学龄前儿童点比较任务表现的影响。
参与者为来自智利13所不同学校的517名学龄前儿童。儿童完成了一项点比较任务和两项抑制控制任务。采用格比斯和雷诺沃特方法创建了用于点比较任务的控制良好的点阵。进行逻辑混合效应模型以预测参与者的点比较准确性。连续量和比例作为一级预测变量输入，抑制控制作为二级预测变量输入。
结果表明，所有预测变量对点比较准确性都有显著贡献。此外，显著的双重交互作用（抑制控制×连续量）和三重交互作用（抑制控制×连续量×比例）表明，抑制控制技能在点比较准确性中的贡献取决于点阵的连续属性和比例。
这些发现表明，学龄前儿童在点比较任务中更多地依赖连续量而非数量。它们还表明，儿童的抑制控制越强，在完全不一致的试验中就越能基于数量做出反应，尤其是当比例较低时（最容易的项目）。综上所述，上述发现支持了竞争过程理论，前提是近似数量系统和抑制控制技能都影响点比较任务的表现。
