Non - Verbal

This version is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Abstract The process by which adults develop competence in symbolic mathematics tasks is poorly understood. Non-human animals, human infants, and human adults all form non-verbal representations of the approximate numerosity of arrays of dots, and are capable of using these representations to perform basic mathematical operations. Several researchers have speculated that individual differences in the acuity of such non-verbal number representations provide the basis for individual differences in symbolic mathematical competence. Specifically, prior research has found that 14-year-old children's ability to rapidly compare the numerosities of two sets of colored dots is correlated with their mathematics achievements at ages 5-11. Here we demonstrate that although when measured concurrently the same relationship holds in children, it does not hold in adults. We conclude that the association between non-verbal number acuity and mathematics achievement changes with age, and that non-verbal number representations do not hold the key to explaining the wide variety of mathematical performance levels in adults. Dealing accurately with numerical quantities is fundamental to success in modern societies. On a daily basis we are asked to make judgments about concepts that are expressed numerically, be it monetary value, weather, temporal duration or spatial distance. But what is the cognitive basis for our ability to engage with numerical quantities such as these? Recently it has been proposed that the answer to this question is an innate and inexact analog system known as the Approximate Number System (ANS). This evolutionarily ancient system enables us, for example, to rapidly decide, without explicitly counting, which of two orange trees has the greatest number of fruit, or which of two herds has the greatest number of gazelle. The ANS supports approximate numerical operations, such as comparison and addition, on both visual and auditory arrays, in adults, children and in non-human animals These findings raise the possibility that the ANS is the cognitive basis of everyday numeracy skills such as exact addition, subtraction and multiplication with Arabic numerals. At least four sources of evidence support this possibility. First, the ANS appears to be automatically activated in response to Arabic numerals by adults as well as children (Dehaene, 1997; Moyer & Landauer, 1967). Second, children who have had no formal mathematical instruction seem to harness the ANS when asked to perform approximate symbolic arithmetic operations (additions of …