Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division Symbol
Children bring intuitive arithmetic knowledge to the classroom before formal instruction in mathematics begins. For example, children can use their number sense to add, subtract, compare ratios, and even perform scaling operations that increase or decrease a set of dots by a factor of 2 or 4. Howeve...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.752190/full |
| _version_ | 1818979377963073536 |
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| author | Emily Szkudlarek Haobai Zhang Nicholas K. DeWind Elizabeth M. Brannon |
| author_facet | Emily Szkudlarek Haobai Zhang Nicholas K. DeWind Elizabeth M. Brannon |
| author_sort | Emily Szkudlarek |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Children bring intuitive arithmetic knowledge to the classroom before formal instruction in mathematics begins. For example, children can use their number sense to add, subtract, compare ratios, and even perform scaling operations that increase or decrease a set of dots by a factor of 2 or 4. However, it is currently unknown whether children can engage in a true division operation before formal mathematical instruction. Here we examined the ability of 6- to 9-year-old children and college students to perform symbolic and non-symbolic approximate division. Subjects were presented with non-symbolic (dot array) or symbolic (Arabic numeral) dividends ranging from 32 to 185, and non-symbolic divisors ranging from 2 to 8. Subjects compared their imagined quotient to a visible target quantity. Both children (Experiment 1 N = 89, Experiment 2 N = 42) and adults (Experiment 3 N = 87) were successful at the approximate division tasks in both dots and numeral formats. This was true even among the subset of children that could not recognize the division symbol or solve simple division equations, suggesting intuitive division ability precedes formal division instruction. For both children and adults, the ability to divide non-symbolically mediated the relation between Approximate Number System (ANS) acuity and symbolic math performance, suggesting that the ability to calculate non-symbolically may be a mechanism of the relation between ANS acuity and symbolic math. Our findings highlight the intuitive arithmetic abilities children possess before formal math instruction. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T16:58:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e87d40031cb746498cc5609958d83fbc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T16:58:34Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-e87d40031cb746498cc5609958d83fbc2022-12-21T19:32:40ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612022-02-011610.3389/fnhum.2022.752190752190Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division SymbolEmily SzkudlarekHaobai ZhangNicholas K. DeWindElizabeth M. BrannonChildren bring intuitive arithmetic knowledge to the classroom before formal instruction in mathematics begins. For example, children can use their number sense to add, subtract, compare ratios, and even perform scaling operations that increase or decrease a set of dots by a factor of 2 or 4. However, it is currently unknown whether children can engage in a true division operation before formal mathematical instruction. Here we examined the ability of 6- to 9-year-old children and college students to perform symbolic and non-symbolic approximate division. Subjects were presented with non-symbolic (dot array) or symbolic (Arabic numeral) dividends ranging from 32 to 185, and non-symbolic divisors ranging from 2 to 8. Subjects compared their imagined quotient to a visible target quantity. Both children (Experiment 1 N = 89, Experiment 2 N = 42) and adults (Experiment 3 N = 87) were successful at the approximate division tasks in both dots and numeral formats. This was true even among the subset of children that could not recognize the division symbol or solve simple division equations, suggesting intuitive division ability precedes formal division instruction. For both children and adults, the ability to divide non-symbolically mediated the relation between Approximate Number System (ANS) acuity and symbolic math performance, suggesting that the ability to calculate non-symbolically may be a mechanism of the relation between ANS acuity and symbolic math. Our findings highlight the intuitive arithmetic abilities children possess before formal math instruction.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.752190/fullmathematical abilitynumber sensedivisionarithmeticapproximate number systemapproximate arithmetic |
| spellingShingle | Emily Szkudlarek Haobai Zhang Nicholas K. DeWind Elizabeth M. Brannon Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division Symbol Frontiers in Human Neuroscience mathematical ability number sense division arithmetic approximate number system approximate arithmetic |
| title | Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division Symbol |
| title_full | Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division Symbol |
| title_fullStr | Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division Symbol |
| title_full_unstemmed | Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division Symbol |
| title_short | Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division Symbol |
| title_sort | young children intuitively divide before they recognize the division symbol |
| topic | mathematical ability number sense division arithmetic approximate number system approximate arithmetic |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.752190/full |
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