title: The impact of finger counting habits on arithmetic in adults and children.
abstract: Here, we explored the impact of finger counting habits on arithmetic in both adults and children. Two groups of participants were examined, those that begin counting with their left hand (left-starters) and those that begin counting with their right hand (right-starters). For the adults, performance on an addition task in which participants added 2 two-digit numbers was compared. The results revealed that left-starters were slower than right-starters when adding and they had lower forward and backward digit-span scores. The children (aged 5-12) showed similar results on a single-digit timed addition task-right-starters outperformed left-starters. However, the children did not reveal differences in working memory or verbal and non-verbal intelligence as a function of finger counting habit. We argue that the motor act of finger counting influences how number is represented and suggest that left-starters may have a more bilateral representation that accounts for the slower processing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA, sdnewman@indiana.edu.
authors.forename: Sharlene D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.forename: Firat
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Soylu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
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