Spontaneous mapping of number and space in adults and young children.
Mature 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.
de Hevia
Maria-Dolores
MD
Laboratory for Developmental Studies, William James Hall, 11th floor, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. dehevia@wjh.harvard.edu
Spelke
Elizabeth S
ES
D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult