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The nonintentional processing of Arabic numbers in children.

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Mussolin, Christophe [UCL] Noël, Marie-Pascale [UCL]

This paper aims at determining when magnitude is automatically activated from Arabic digits in children and whether this automatic activation depends on the number size of the stimuli considered. Second, third, and fourth graders performed a physical Stroop task in which pairs of single- and two-digit Arabic numerals in a ratio 1:2 or 2:3 were used. In addition, the speed of perceptual and semantic information was balanced: Instead of presenting the two members of each pair directly with a physical size difference, they first appeared in the same intermediate physical size, the perceptual difference occurring only after some time. The results indicated a significant effect of congruity at all grades, with faster reaction times and lower error rates for congruent trials than for incongruent trials, for both one- and two-digit numerals. Furthermore, this congruity effect was affected by the ratio of the numbers in the pairs. Only pairs of ratio 1:2 were affected by this congruity effect. These findings strongly support the fact that children as young as 7 years old can automatically access the magnitude information of one- as well as two-digit Arabic numerals.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Clinical Trial, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Access type Accès libre
Publication date 2007
Journal information "Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology" - Vol. 29, no. 3, p. 225-34 (2007)
Peer reviewed yes
issn 1380-3395
Publication status Publié
Affiliation UCL - PSP/PSP - Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation
MESH Subject Aging - psychology ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mathematics ; Mental Processes - physiology ; Psychomotor Performance - physiology ; Reaction Time - physiology
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Bibliographic reference Mussolin, Christophe ; Noël, Marie-Pascale. The nonintentional processing of Arabic numbers in children.. In: Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, Vol. 29, no. 3, p. 225-34 (2007)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/12759