08:30 - 10:00
Tue-B21-Talk IV-
Tue-Talk IV-
Room: B21
Chair/s:
André Knops
The mental number line (MNL) as a metaphor for describing the spatially organized mental representation of numbers in long-term memory has a number of theoretical implications that refer to spatial-numerical associations (e.g. the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes [SNARC]), biases of spatial attention (attentional SNARC), or the involvement of transient stimulus representations in working memory. The current symposium brings together empirical works from leading European labs that put these notions to test. The talks are complementary in terms of methodology (e.g. reaction time experiments; line marking tasks; word categorization tasks; temporal
order judgments tasks), investigated samples (healthy participants; neurological patients) and age range (Kindergarteners, adults) but jointly address the idea of a spatial representation of numbers from different perspectives. The common underlying theoretical framework will facilitate the exchange on limiting conditions of the MNL metaphor by transgressing disciplinary boundaries. This will help developing alternative theoretical frameworks by highlighting alternative mechanisms such as transient organizational principles in working memory, task-specific spatial response codes, or culturally mediated factors such as counting habits.
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Spatializing serial order WM as a determinant of mathematical abilities
Tue-B21-Talk IV-05
Presented by: Jolien Moorkens
Jolien Moorkens 1, Jean-Philippe van Dijck 1, 2, Krzysztof Cipora 3, Wim Fias 1
1 Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University; Belgium, 2 Thomas More University College, Antwerp, Belgium, 3 Department of Mathematics Education, Loughborough University, UK
Mathematical abilities are closely related to spatial processing (e.g.Cheng & Mix, 2014). Currently it is unknown where this relationship comes from. Here we test two potential origins: the spatial mental representation of numbers and the spatial organization of our working memory (WM). A popular task to measure the spatial nature of someone's number representation is parity judgement (Dehaene et al., 1993). Here it is typically observed that participants are faster to give left-sided responses to small numbers and right-sided responses to large numbers (i.e. the SNARC effect). To measure the spatial organization of (verbal) WM, van Dijck & Fias (2011), developed task where subjects had to categorize words (e.g. fruits or vegetable) that were serially stored in WM by giving left or right responses. They observed that faster left-sided responses were given to words from the beginning of the sequence, and faster right-sided responses to words from the end of the sequence. This effect was named the ‘ordinal position effect’ (OPE), and to our knowledge, the relation between this effect and mathematical abilities remains to be investigated. In a series of behavioural studies we investigated the relationship between various mathematical abilities (mental arithmetic, word problems, algebra, fractions and geometry) and the SNARC and the OPE effect. It was found that the OPE effect correlated with mathematical abilities, word problems and fractions in particular. The SNARC effect didn’t correlate with any of the math measures. It can be concluded that structuring WM in a spatial manner supports performing mathematics.
Keywords: Cognitive development, Cognitive skills and processes, Mathematical Cognition, Spatial cognition, Working Memory
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