TY - JOUR
T1 - Children's arithmetic development
T2 - it is number knowledge, not the approximate number sense, that counts
AU - Göbel, Silke M
AU - Watson, Sarah E
AU - Lervåg, Arne
AU - Hulme, Charles
N1 - © 2014 The Authors. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Psychological Science. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
PY - 2014/3/1
Y1 - 2014/3/1
N2 - In this article, we present the results of an 11-month longitudinal study (beginning when children were 6 years old) focusing on measures of the approximate number sense (ANS) and knowledge of the Arabic numeral system as possible influences on the development of arithmetic skills. Multiple measures of symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude judgment were shown to define a unitary factor that appears to index the efficiency of an ANS system, which is a strong longitudinal correlate of arithmetic skills. However, path models revealed that knowledge of Arabic numerals at 6 years was a powerful longitudinal predictor of the growth in arithmetic skills, whereas variations in magnitude-comparison ability played no additional role in predicting variations in arithmetic skills. These results suggest that verbal processes concerned with learning the labels for Arabic numerals, and the ability to translate between Arabic numerals and verbal codes, place critical constraints on arithmetic development.
AB - In this article, we present the results of an 11-month longitudinal study (beginning when children were 6 years old) focusing on measures of the approximate number sense (ANS) and knowledge of the Arabic numeral system as possible influences on the development of arithmetic skills. Multiple measures of symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude judgment were shown to define a unitary factor that appears to index the efficiency of an ANS system, which is a strong longitudinal correlate of arithmetic skills. However, path models revealed that knowledge of Arabic numerals at 6 years was a powerful longitudinal predictor of the growth in arithmetic skills, whereas variations in magnitude-comparison ability played no additional role in predicting variations in arithmetic skills. These results suggest that verbal processes concerned with learning the labels for Arabic numerals, and the ability to translate between Arabic numerals and verbal codes, place critical constraints on arithmetic development.
U2 - 10.1177/0956797613516471
DO - 10.1177/0956797613516471
M3 - Article
C2 - 24482406
VL - 25
SP - 789
EP - 798
JO - Psychological Science
JF - Psychological Science
SN - 0956-7976
IS - 3
ER -
