Nonsymbolic, approximate arithmetic in children: abstract addition prior to instruction |
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Authors: | Barth Hilary Beckmann Lacey Spelke Elizabeth S |
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Affiliation: | Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459, USA. hbarth@wesleyan.edu |
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Abstract: | Do children draw upon abstract representations of number when they perform approximate arithmetic operations? In this study, kindergarten children viewed animations suggesting addition of a sequence of sounds to an array of dots, and they compared the sum to a second dot array that differed from the sum by 1 of 3 ratios. Children performed this task successfully with all the signatures of adults' nonsymbolic number representations: accuracy modulated by the ratio of the sum and the comparison quantity, equal performance for within- and cross-modality tasks and for addition and comparison tasks, and performance superior to that of a matched subtraction task. The findings provide clear evidence for nonsymbolic numerical operations on abstract numerical quantities in children who have not yet been taught formal arithmetic. |
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