title: New Evidence on Causal Relationship between Approximate Number System (ANS) Acuity and Arithmetic Ability in Elementary-School Students: A Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis.
abstract: Approximate number system (ANS) acuity and mathematical ability have been found to be closely associated in recent studies. However, whether and how these two measures are causally related still remain less addressed. There are two hypotheses about the possible causal relationship: ANS acuity influences mathematical performances, or access to math education sharpens ANS acuity. Evidences in support of both hypotheses have been reported, but these two hypotheses have never been tested simultaneously. Therefore, questions still remain whether only one-direction or reciprocal causal relationships existed in the association. In this work, we provided a new evidence on the causal relationship between ANS acuity and arithmetic ability. ANS acuity and mathematical ability of elementary-school students were measured sequentially at three time points within one year, and all possible causal directions were evaluated simultaneously using cross-lagged regression analysis. The results show that ANS acuity influences later arithmetic ability while the reverse causal direction was not supported. Our finding adds a strong evidence to the causal association between ANS acuity and mathematical ability, and also has important implications for educational intervention designed to train ANS acuity and thereby promote mathematical ability.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yunfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xinlin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma Norman, OK, USA.
authors.forename: Dexin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma Norman, OK, USA.
authors.forename: Hairong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jiannong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
keywords: approximate number system; arithmetic ability; cross-lagged analysis; elementary-school students; longitudinal study; math performance