A gifted SNARC? Directional spatial-numerical associations in gifted children with high-level math skills do not differ from controls.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: He Y
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8211597 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:While mathematically impaired individuals have been shown to have deficits in all kinds of basic numerical representations, among them spatial-numerical associations, little is known about individuals with exceptionally high math expertise. They might have a more abstract magnitude representation or more flexible spatial associations, so that no automatic left/small and right/large spatial-numerical association is elicited. To pursue this question, we examined the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect in professional mathematicians which was compared to two control groups: Professionals who use advanced math in their work but are not mathematicians (mostly engineers), and matched controls. Contrarily to both control groups, Mathematicians did not reveal a SNARC effect. The group differences could not be accounted for by differences in mean response speed, response variance or intelligence or a general tendency not to show spatial-numerical associations. We propose that professional mathematicians possess more abstract and/or spatially very flexible numerical representations and therefore do not exhibit or do have a largely reduced default left-to-right spatial-numerical orientation as indexed by the SNARC effect, but we also discuss other possible accounts. We argue that this comparison with professional mathematicians also tells us about the nature of spatial-numerical associations in persons with much less mathematical expertise or knowledge.
| S-EPMC4889706 | biostudies-other
Project description:There is an intense debate surrounding the origin of spatial-numerical associations (SNAs), according to which small numbers are mapped onto the left side of the space and large numbers onto the right. Despite evidence suggesting that SNAs would emerge as an innate predisposition to map numerical information onto a left-to-right spatially oriented mental representation, alternative accounts have challenged these proposals, maintaining that such a mapping would be the result of a mere spatial frequency (SF) coding of any visual image. That is, any smaller or larger array of objects would naturally contain more low or high SF information and, accordingly, each hemisphere would be preferentially tuned only for one SF range (e.g., right hemisphere tuned for low SF and left hemisphere tuned for high SF). This would determine the typical SNA (e.g., faster RTs for small numerical arrays with the left hand and for large numerical arrays with the right hand). To directly probe the role of SF coding in SNAs, we tested participants in a typical dot-arrays comparison task with two numerical sets: one in which SFs were confounded with numerosity (Experiment 1) and one in which the full SF power spectrum was equalized across all stimuli, keeping this cue uninformative about numerosity (Experiment 2). We found that SNAs emerged in both experiments, independently of whether SF was confounded or not with numerosity. Taken together, these findings suggest that SNAs cannot simply originate from SF power spectrum alone, and, thus, they rule out the brain's asymmetric SF tuning as a primary cause of such an effect.
| S-EPMC8821778 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The spatial numerical association of response codes effect, referred to as the SNARC effect, reveals that small numbers elicit faster left than right responses, and conversely, large numbers elicit faster right responses. Here, we explored the development of this number-space association by assessing how 7-, 9-, 11-year-olds, and adults differed in spatial orienting of attention on Posner' paradigm. Compared with the previous research, we examined how the cues would affect the level and strength of the SNARC effect in children under the different attentional conditions. Subjects made parity decisions for endogenous attention (Experiment 1) and exogenous attention (Experiment 2). The results showed that adults displayed the SNARC effect in both experiments, relatively speaking, 7- to 11-year-old Chinese children's ability of spatial numerical association progressed gradually. With endogenous attention, the SNARC effect appeared in all age groups except for 7-year-olds for invalid cues. Compared with the endogenous attention condition, the SNARC effect was more significantly affected by cues in the exogenous attention condition. This result might be owing to the fact that the SNARC effect was not demonstrated in 7-year-olds with either valid or invalid cues. Our results suggest that the differences in the spatial orienting of attention are based on the cognitive load associated with processing number information and that this process can be affected by cues. Further, there may be cross-cultural influences on the SNARC effect, as early family training may explain the results seen in this sample of Chinese 7-year-olds. Thus, reaction times decreased with increasing age in the parity judgment task, and reaction times for valid cues were faster than for invalid cues regardless of the age group in both experiments. The SNARC effect was only present for 7-year-olds for valid cues, for endogenous attention.
| S-EPMC6413915 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Math-gifted subjects are characterized by above-age performance in intelligence tests, exceptional creativity, and high task commitment. Neuroimaging studies reveal enhanced functional brain organization and white matter microstructure in the frontoparietal executive network of math-gifted individuals. However, the cortical morphometry of these subjects remains largely unknown. The main goal of this study was to compare the cortical morphometry of math-gifted adolescents with that of an age- and IQ-matched control group. We used surface-based methods to perform a vertex-wise analysis of cortical thickness and surface area. Our results show that math-gifted adolescents present a thinner cortex and a larger surface area in key regions of the frontoparietal and default mode networks, which are involved in executive processing and creative thinking, respectively. The combination of reduced cortical thickness and larger surface area suggests above-age neural maturation of these networks in math-gifted individuals. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1893-1902, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
| S-EPMC6867317 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Children's play time has declined in recent decades, which could negatively impact early self-regulation-a vital component of school readiness. To date, studies have not fully explored how the time spent playing relates to children's self-regulatory skills, and in turn, their early reading and math competencies. Using data from time diaries and direct assessments of self-regulation, prereading, and math skills, this study examined how minutes spent playing at home predict these skills in a sample of 128 children followed from age four to five. Additionally, it considered whether self-regulation explained links between play time and prereading and math. Results showed that the time spent playing positively related to children's self-regulation. Moreover, through its association with self-regulation, play time had indirect effects on prereading and math skills measured one year later. Results suggest that fostering opportunities for play time during the preschool years may help to boost school readiness skills.
| S-EPMC10688615 | biostudies-literature
Project description:According to theories of embodied numerosity, processing of numerical magnitude is anchored in bodily experiences. In particular, spatial representations of number interact with movement in physical space, but it is still unclear whether the extent of the movement is relevant for this interaction. In this study, we compared spatial-numerical associations over response movements of differing spatial expansion. We expected spatial-numerical effects to increase with the extent of physical response movements. In addition, we hypothesized that these effects should be influenced by whether or not a spatial representation of numbers was presented. Adult participants performed two tasks: a magnitude classification (comparing numbers to the fixed standard 5), from which we calculated the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect; and a magnitude comparison task (comparing two numbers against each other), from which we calculated a relative numerical congruity effect (NCE), which describes that when two relatively small numbers are compared, responses to the smaller number are faster than responses to the larger number; and vice versa for large numbers. A SNARC effect was observed across all conditions and was not influenced by response movement extent but increased when a number line was presented. In contrast, an NCE was only observed when no number line was presented. This suggests that the SNARC effect and the NCE reflect two different processes. The SNARC effect seems to represent a highly automated classification of numbers as large or small, which is further emphasized by the presentation of a number line. In contrast, the NCE likely results from participants not only classifying numbers as small or large, but also processing their relative size within the relevant section of their mental number line representation. An additional external presentation of a number line might interfere with this process, resulting in overall slower responses. This study follows up on previous spatial-numerical training studies and has implications for future spatial-numerical trainings. Specifically, similar studies with children showed contrasting results, in that response format but not number line presentation influenced spatial-numerical associations. Accordingly, during development, the relative relevance of physical experiences and presentation format for spatial-numerical associations might change.
| S-EPMC6305423 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Selecting a large and diverse sample of 5-6-year-old preschool children (179 boys and 174 girls; M age = 70.03 months, SD age = 3.43), we aimed to extend previous findings on variability in children's home math environment (i.e., home math activities, parental expectations, and attitudes) and its association with children's mathematical skills. We operationalized mathematics in a broader way than in previous studies, by considering not only children's numerical skills but also their patterning skills as integral components of early mathematical development. We investigated the effects of children's gender and socioeconomic status (SES) on their home math environment, examined the associations between children's home math environment and their mathematical skills, and verified whether these associations were moderated by children's gender and/or SES. Parents of 353 children completed a home math environment questionnaire and all children completed measures of their numerical (e.g., object counting) and patterning skills (e.g., extending repeating patterns). Results indicated no effect of children's gender on their home math environment. There was no effect of SES on the performed home math activities, but small SES differences existed in parents' math-related expectations and their attitudes. We found no evidence for associations between children's home math environment and their mathematical skills. Furthermore, there were no moderating effects of gender or SES on these associations. One explanation for these findings might relate to the characteristics of the general preschool system in the country of the present study (Belgium). Future studies should consider the effect of the preschool learning environment because it might explain differences between studies and countries with regard to the home math environment and its association with mathematical skills.
| S-EPMC7758193 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There is a growing literature concerning the role of the home math environment in children's math development. In this study, we examined the relation between these constructs by specifically addressing three goals. The first goal was to identify the measurement structure of the home math environment through a series of confirmatory factor analyses. The second goal was to examine the role of the home math environment in predicting parent report of children's math skills. The third goal was to test a series of potential alternative explanations for the relation between the home math environment and parent report of children's skills, specifically the direct and indirect role of household income, parent math anxiety, and parent math ability as measured by their approximate number system performance. A final sample of 339 parents of children aged 3 through 8 drawn from Mechanical Turk answered a questionnaire online. The best fitting model of the home math environment was a bifactor model with a general factor representing the general home math environment, and three specific factors representing the direct numeracy environment, the indirect numeracy environment, and the spatial environment. When examining the association of the home math environment factors to parent report of child skills, the general home math environment factor and the spatial environment were the only significant predictors. Parents who reported doing more general math activities in the home reported having children with higher math skills, whereas parents who reported doing more spatial activities reported having children with lower math skills.
| S-EPMC5179117 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study focused on the use of math in everyday life (the propensity to recognize and solve quantitative issues in real life situations). Data from a Dutch nation-wide research on math among adults (N = 521) were used to investigate the question whether math anxiety and perceived math competence mediated the relationship between math skills and use of math in everyday life, taken gender differences into account. Results showed that women reported higher math anxiety, lower perceived math competence, and lower use of math in everyday life, compared to men. Women's skills were estimated at a lower level than men's. For both women and men, higher skills were associated with higher perceived math competence, which in turn was associated with more use of math in everyday life. Only for women, math anxiety also mediated the relation between math skills and use of math in everyday life.
| S-EPMC4835718 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Humans have associations between numbers and physical space on both horizontal and vertical dimensions, called Spatial-Numerical Associations (SNAs). Several studies have considered the hypothesis of there being a dominant orientation by examining on which dimension people are more accurate and efficient at responding during various directional SNA tasks. However, these studies have difficulty differentiating between a person's efficiency at accessing mental representations of numbers in space, and the efficiency at which they exercise motor control functions, particularly bilateral ones, when manifesting a response during an explicit directional SNA task. In this study we use a conflict test employing combined explicit magnitude and spatial directional processing in which pairs of numbers are placed along the diagonal axes and response accuracy/efficiency are considered across the horizontal and vertical dimensions simultaneously. Participants indicated which number in each pair was largest using a joystick that only required unilateral input. The experiment was run in English using Arabic numerals. Results showed that directional SNAs have a vertical rather than horizontal dominance. A moderating factor was also found during post-hoc analysis, where response efficiency, but not accuracy, is conditional on a person's native language being oriented the same as the language of the experiment, left to right. The dominance of the vertical orientation suggests adopting more vertical display formats for numbers may provide situational advantages, particularly for explicit magnitude comparisons, with some domains like flight controls and the stock market already using these in some cases.
| S-EPMC9409557 | biostudies-literature