Probing the Nature of Deficits in the "Approximate Number System" in Children with Persistent Developmental Dyscalculia

Autor/inn/en	Bugden, Stephanie; Ansari, Daniel
Titel	Probing the Nature of Deficits in the "Approximate Number System" in Children with Persistent Developmental Dyscalculia
Quelle	In: Developmental Science, 19 (2016) 5, S.817-833 (17 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1363-755X
DOI	10.1111/desc.12324
Schlagwörter	Learning Disabilities; Children; Spatial Ability; Short Term Memory; Individual Differences; Visual Acuity; Elementary School Students; Comparative Analysis; Visual Perception; Cues; Cognitive Processes; Long Term Memory; Arithmetic; Number Systems; Mathematics Achievement + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Learning handicap; Lernbehinderung; Child; Kind; Kinder; Räumliches Vorstellungsvermögen; Kurzzeitgedächtnis; Individueller Unterschied; Optisches Differenzierungsvermögen; Visuelle Wahrnehmung; Stichwort; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Langzeitgedächtnis; Addition; Arithmetik; Arithmetikunterricht; Rechnen; Number system; Zahlensystem; Mathmatics sikills; Mathmatics achievement; Mathematical ability; Mathematische Kompetenz
Abstract	In the present study we examined whether children with Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) exhibit a deficit in the so-called "Approximate Number System" (ANS). To do so, we examined a group of elementary school children who demonstrated persistent low math achievement over 4 years and compared them to typically developing (TD), aged-matched controls. The integrity of the ANS was measured using the Panamath (www.panamath.org) non-symbolic numerical discrimination test. Children with DD demonstrated imprecise ANS acuity indexed by larger Weber fraction (w) compared to TD controls. Given recent findings showing that non-symbolic numerical discrimination is affected by visual parameters, we went further and investigated whether children performed differently on trials on which number of dots and their overall area were either congruent or incongruent with each other. This analysis revealed that differences in w were only found between DD and TD children on the incongruent trials. In addition, visuo-spatial working memory strongly predicts individual differences in ANS acuity (w) during the incongruent trials. Thus the purported ANS deficit in DD can be explained by a difficulty in extracting number from an array of dots when area is anti-correlated with number. These data highlight the role of visuo-spatial working memory during the extraction process, and demonstrate that close attention needs to be paid to perceptual processes invoked by tasks thought to represent measures of the ANS. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01