Early Subitizing Development: The Role of Visuospatial Working Memory



Abstract Views
603

Downloads
357

Citations

Share

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##

Submitted Feb 1, 2022
Published Mar 30, 2022
10.24018/ejedu.2022.3.2.274

Abstract viewed = 603 times

Table of Contents

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##

The present study explored enumeration processes, serial counting and subitizing, in early childhood. Subitizing is a fast and accurate assessment of small quantities. Early quantitative processing is built off of a “parallel individuation” system, a domain-general, visuospatial system that allows infants to track small sets of objects. This system creates a precise mental model of every object in a small set, similar to subitizing. Subitizing ability helps children to acquire mature symbolic representation of numeral, and deficits in enumeration processes is associate to math disabilities. However, the role of development in enumeration processes and the role of visuospatial working memory is enumeration processes is largely unknown. Hence, in the present study, we tested visuospatial working memory’s role in subitizing development in preschoolers. We tested 3 to 5-year-old’s performance in enumeration and visuospatial working memory tasks. Performance in the subitizing range (one to four items) related to individual differences in visuospatial working memory and age, while performance for greater numericities in the serial counting range did not. Interestingly, controlling for visuospatial working memory span reduced the developmental effect of subitizing, suggesting that both visuospatial working memory and age can affect individual differences in subitizing in young children, which has implications for early childhood education.

 

 

Keywords: Development, Serial Counting, Subitizing, Visuospatial Working Memory

References

  1. Akin, O., & Chase, W. (1978). Quantification of three-dimensional structures. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 4(3), 397-410.
     Google Scholar
  2. Anobile, G., Cicchini, G. M., & Burr, D. C. (2016). Number As a Primary Perceptual Attribute: A Review. Perception, 45(1-2), 5-31. doi: 10.1177/0301006615602599
     Google Scholar
  3. Ashkenazi, S., Rosenberg-Lee, M., Metcalfe, A. W. S., Swigart, A. G., & Menon, V. (2013). Visuo–spatial working memory is an important source of domain-general vulnerability in the development of arithmetic cognition. Neuropsychologia, 51(11), 2305-2317. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.06.031
     Google Scholar
  4. Carey, S. (2001). Cognitive Foundations of Arithmetic: Evolution and Ontogenisis. Mind & Language, 16(1), 37-55. doi: 10.1111/1468-0017.00155
     Google Scholar
  5. Carey, S. (2004). Bootstrapping & the origin of concepts. Daedalus, 133, 59+.
     Google Scholar
  6. Dehaene, S., & Cohen, L. (1994). Dissociable mechanisms of subitizing and counting: neuropsychological evidence from simultanagnosic patients. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 20(5), 958-975.
     Google Scholar
  7. Feigenson, L., Carey, S., & Hauser, M. (2002). The representations underlying infants' choice of more: object files versus analog magnitudes. Psychol Sci, 13(2), 150-156.
     Google Scholar
  8. Feigenson, L., Dehaene, S., & Spelke, E. . (2004). Core systems of number. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(7), 307-314. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.05.002
     Google Scholar
  9. Formoso, J., Barreyro, J. P., Jacubovich, S., & Injoque-Ricle, I. (2017). Possible Associations between Subitizing, Estimation and Visuospatial Working Memory (VSWM) in Children. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 20. doi: 10.1017/sjp.2017.23
     Google Scholar
  10. Frye, D., Braisby, N., Lowe, J., Maroudas, C., & Nicholls, J. (1989). Young Children's Understanding of Counting and Cardinality. Child Development, 60(5), 1158-1171. doi: 10.2307/1130790
     Google Scholar
  11. Gallistel, C. R., & Gelman, R. (1992). Preverbal and verbal counting and computation. Cognition, 44(1-2), 43-74.
     Google Scholar
  12. Gallistel, C. R., & Gelman, R. . (1990). The what and how of counting. Cognition, 34(2), 197-199. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(90)90043-J
     Google Scholar
  13. Gelman, R., & Meck, E. (1983). Preschoolers' counting: principles before skill. Cognition, 13(3), 343-359.
     Google Scholar
  14. Gray, S. A., & Reeve, R. A. (2014). Preschoolers' Dot Enumeration Abilities Are Markers of Their Arithmetic Competence. PLOS ONE, 9(4), e94428. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094428
     Google Scholar
  15. Halberda, J., & Feigenson, L. (2008). Developmental change in the acuity of the "number sense": The approximate number system in 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds and adults. Developmental Psychology, 44(5), 1457-1465. doi: 10.1037/a0012682
     Google Scholar
  16. Hannula-Sormunen, M. M., Lehtinen, E., & Räsänen, P. (2015). Preschool Children’s Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity, Subitizing, and Counting Skills as Predictors of Their Mathematical Performance Seven Years Later at School. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 17(2-3), 155-177. doi: 10.1080/10986065.2015.1016814
     Google Scholar
  17. Jansen, B. R., Hofman, A. D., Straatemeier, M., van Bers, B. M., Raijmakers, M. E., & van der Maas, H. L. (2014). The role of pattern recognition in children's exact enumeration of small numbers. Br J Dev Psychol, 32(2), 178-194. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12032
     Google Scholar
  18. Landerl, K., Bevan, A., & Butterworth, B. (2004). Developmental dyscalculia and basic numerical capacities: a study of 8–9-year-old students. Cognition, 93(2), 99-125. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2003.11.004
     Google Scholar
  19. Le Corre, M., & Carey, S. (2007). One, two, three, four, nothing more: An investigation of the conceptual sources of the verbal counting principles. Cognition, 105(2), 395-438. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2006.10.005
     Google Scholar
  20. Le Corre, M., Van de Walle, G., Brannon, E. M., & Carey, S. (2006). Re-visiting the competence/performance debate in the acquisition of the counting principles. Cognitive Psychology, 52(2), 130-169. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2005.07.002
     Google Scholar
  21. Leibovich, T., Henik, A., & Salti, M. (2015). Numerosity processing is context driven even in the subitizing range: An fMRI study. Neuropsychologia, 77(Supplement C), 137-147. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.08.016
     Google Scholar
  22. Leibovich-Raveh, T., Lewis, D. J., Kadhim, S. A. R., & Ansari, D. (2018). A new method for calculating individual subitizing ranges. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 4(2), 429-447..
     Google Scholar
  23. Mandler, G., & Shebo, B. J. (1982). Subitizing: an analysis of its component processes. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 111(1), 1-22.
     Google Scholar
  24. Piazza, M., Facoetti, A., Trussardi, A. N., Berteletti, I., Conte, S., Lucangeli, D., . . . Zorzi, M. (2010). Developmental trajectory of number acuity reveals a severe impairment in developmental dyscalculia. Cognition, 116(1), 33-41. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.03.012
     Google Scholar
  25. Piazza, M., Fumarola, A., Chinello, A., & Melcher, D. (2011). Subitizing reflects visuo-spatial object individuation capacity. Cognition, 121(1), 147-153. doi: DOI 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.05.007
     Google Scholar
  26. Piazza, M., Mechelli, A., Butterworth, B., & Price, C. J. (2002). Are Subitizing and Counting Implemented as Separate or Functionally Overlapping Processes? NeuroImage, 15(2), 435-446. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2001.0980
     Google Scholar
  27. Piper, B. J., Li, V., Eiwaz, M. A., Kobel, Y. V., Benice, T. S., Chu, A. M., . . . Mueller, S. T. (2011). Executive function on the Psychology Experiment Building Language tests. Behavior Research Methods, 44(1), 110-123. doi: 10.3758/s13428-011-0096-6
     Google Scholar
  28. Purpura, D. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (2015). Early Numeracy Assessment: The Development of the Preschool Early Numeracy Scales. Early Education and Development, 26(2), 286-313. doi: 10.1080/10409289.2015.991084
     Google Scholar
  29. Revkin, S. K., Piazza, M., Izard, V., Cohen, L., & Dehaene, S. (2008). Does subitizing reflect numerical estimation? Psychological Science, 19(6), 607-614.
     Google Scholar
  30. Sarnecka, B. W., & Gelman, S. A. (2004). Six does not just mean a lot: preschoolers see number words as specific. Cognition, 92(3), 329-352. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2003.10.001
     Google Scholar
  31. Simon, T. J., Peterson, S., Patel, G., & Sathian, K. (1998). Do the magnocellular and parvocellular visual pathways contribute differentially to subitizing and counting? Percept Psychophys, 60(3), 451-464.
     Google Scholar
  32. Slusser, E., Ditta, A., & Sarnecka, B. (2013). Connecting numbers to discrete quantification: a step in the child's construction of integer concepts. Cognition, 129(1), 31-41. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.05.011
     Google Scholar
  33. Starkey, P., & Cooper, R. (1995). The development of subitizing in young children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13(4), 399-420. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-835X.1995.tb00688.x
     Google Scholar
  34. Szűcs, D. (2016). Chapter 11 - Subtypes and comorbidity in mathematical learning disabilities: Multidimensional study of verbal and visual memory processes is key to understanding. In C. Marinella & F. Wim (Eds.), Progress in Brain Research (Vol. Volume 227, pp. 277-304): Elsevier.
     Google Scholar
  35. Szucs, D., Devine, A., Soltesz, F., Nobes, A., & Gabriel, F. (2013). Developmental dyscalculia is related to visuo-spatial memory and inhibition impairment. Cortex, 49(10), 12. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2013.06.007
     Google Scholar
  36. Trick, L. M., & Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1993). What enumeration studies can show us about spatial attention: evidence for limited capacity preattentive processing. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 19(2), 331-351.
     Google Scholar
  37. Wynn, K. (1990). Children's understanding of counting. Cognition, 36(2), 155-193.
     Google Scholar