Spontaneous Mapping of Number and Space in Adults and Young Children
de Hevia, Maria-Dolores
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Citationde Hevia, Maria-Dolores, and Elizabeth S. Spelke. 2009. Spontaneous mapping of number and space in adults and young children. Cognition 110(2): 198-207.
AbstractMature representations of space and number are connected to one another in ways suggestive of a ‘mental number line,’ but this mapping could either be a cultural construction or a reflection of a more fundamental link between the domains of number and geometry. Using a manual bisection paradigm, we tested for number line representations in adults, young school children, and preschool children. Non-symbolic numerical displays systematically distorted localization of the midpoint of a horizontal line at all three ages. Numerical and spatial representations therefore are linked prior to the onset of formal instruction, in a manner that suggests a privileged relation between spatial and numerical cognition.
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