The cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills: It is counting and number judgment, but not finger gnosis, that count

Following on from ideas developed by Gerstmann, a body of work has suggested that impairments in finger gnosis may be causally related to children’s difficulties in learning arithmetic. We report a study with a large sample of typically developing children (N = 197) in which we assessed finger gnosi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Long, I, Malone, S, Tolan, A, Burgoyne, K, Heron-Delaney, M, Witteveen, K, Hulme, C
Format: Journal article
Published: Elsevier 2017
_version_ 1797104940975390720
author Long, I
Malone, S
Tolan, A
Burgoyne, K
Heron-Delaney, M
Witteveen, K
Hulme, C
author_facet Long, I
Malone, S
Tolan, A
Burgoyne, K
Heron-Delaney, M
Witteveen, K
Hulme, C
author_sort Long, I
collection OXFORD
description Following on from ideas developed by Gerstmann, a body of work has suggested that impairments in finger gnosis may be causally related to children’s difficulties in learning arithmetic. We report a study with a large sample of typically developing children (N = 197) in which we assessed finger gnosis and arithmetic along with a range of other relevant cognitive predictors of arithmetic skills (vocabulary, counting, and symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude judgments). Contrary to some earlier claims, we found no meaningful association between finger gnosis and arithmetic skills. Counting and symbolic magnitude comparison were, however, powerful predictors of arithmetic skills, replicating a number of earlier findings. Our findings seriously question theories that posit either a simple association or a causal connection between finger gnosis and the development of arithmetic skills.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T06:40:30Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:f91c404b-858c-42bc-9511-c0fa03ca1899
institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-07T06:40:30Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Elsevier
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:f91c404b-858c-42bc-9511-c0fa03ca18992022-03-27T12:55:29ZThe cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills: It is counting and number judgment, but not finger gnosis, that countJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:f91c404b-858c-42bc-9511-c0fa03ca1899Symplectic Elements at OxfordElsevier2017Long, IMalone, STolan, ABurgoyne, KHeron-Delaney, MWitteveen, KHulme, CFollowing on from ideas developed by Gerstmann, a body of work has suggested that impairments in finger gnosis may be causally related to children’s difficulties in learning arithmetic. We report a study with a large sample of typically developing children (N = 197) in which we assessed finger gnosis and arithmetic along with a range of other relevant cognitive predictors of arithmetic skills (vocabulary, counting, and symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude judgments). Contrary to some earlier claims, we found no meaningful association between finger gnosis and arithmetic skills. Counting and symbolic magnitude comparison were, however, powerful predictors of arithmetic skills, replicating a number of earlier findings. Our findings seriously question theories that posit either a simple association or a causal connection between finger gnosis and the development of arithmetic skills.
spellingShingle Long, I
Malone, S
Tolan, A
Burgoyne, K
Heron-Delaney, M
Witteveen, K
Hulme, C
The cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills: It is counting and number judgment, but not finger gnosis, that count
title The cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills: It is counting and number judgment, but not finger gnosis, that count
title_full The cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills: It is counting and number judgment, but not finger gnosis, that count
title_fullStr The cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills: It is counting and number judgment, but not finger gnosis, that count
title_full_unstemmed The cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills: It is counting and number judgment, but not finger gnosis, that count
title_short The cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills: It is counting and number judgment, but not finger gnosis, that count
title_sort cognitive foundations of early arithmetic skills it is counting and number judgment but not finger gnosis that count
work_keys_str_mv AT longi thecognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT malones thecognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT tolana thecognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT burgoynek thecognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT herondelaneym thecognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT witteveenk thecognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT hulmec thecognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT longi cognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT malones cognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT tolana cognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT burgoynek cognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT herondelaneym cognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT witteveenk cognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount
AT hulmec cognitivefoundationsofearlyarithmeticskillsitiscountingandnumberjudgmentbutnotfingergnosisthatcount