1-071 - Uncovering the mechanisms of basic numerical abilities

Session Type: Poster Symposium

Integrative Statement

As human adults, we take basic numerical abilities for granted. However, substantial knowledge gaps exist in our understanding of how the cognitive and neural systems that support these abilities emerge. For instance, what mechanisms underlie the development of our primitive sense of number? How do we learn counting and symbolic numbers? What is the source of developmental disabilities and individual differences in math abilities? Ultimately, the answers to these questions will require integrating diverse methods and advances in different subdisciplines. As such, this symposium takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the cognitive and neural underpinnings of numerical cognition. The studies we present span across methods (including computational tools, cross cultural and comparative studies, and neuroimaging studies), and across a range of numerical abilities (from non-symbolic number processing to symbolic counting). The first two studies, in olive baboons and in Tsimane children, explore whether or not counting is related to the understanding of numerical principles. The next two studies, using EEG and fMRI in children and adults, investigate the mechanisms underlying the development of symbolic and non-symbolic number representations. The final two studies investigate the source of individual differences in numerical competence using a computational modeling and neuroimaging approaches in both typically developing children and in children with developmental disabilities. This symposium thus provides a common ground for researchers in various sub-disciplines using a variety of methods to gain synergistic effects in tackling a centuries-old question: where does the human mathematical knowledge come from?

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chairs

• Daniel Ansari, The University of Western Ontario, Canada

• Joonkoo Park, University of Massachusetts

Individual Presentations

• Understanding the 1-to-1 Correspondence Principle without Counting - Presenting Author: Sarah E Koopman, University of Rochester; Alyssa Arre, Yale University; Steven Piantadosi, University of Rochester; Jessica Cantlon, University of Rochester

• The relation between mastery of the logic of natural numbers and mastery of counting - Presenting Author: Julian Jara-Ettinger, MIT; Steven Piantadosi, University of Rochester; Elizabeth Spelke, Harvard University; Roger Levy, MIT; Edward Gibson, MIT

• Neural mechanisms underlying the development of the approximate number system - Presenting Author: Joonkoo Park, University of Massachusetts

• Developmental changes in the neural correlates of processing numerical order: an fMRI study - Presenting Author: Anna Matejko, Western University; Jane E Hutchison, Western University and Georgetown University; Daniel Ansari, The University of Western Ontario, Canada

• Dynamic System model prediction of individual differences in numerical development - Presenting Author: Richard Prather, University of Maryland; Sara Heverly-Fitt, University of Maryland

• Arithmetic in dyscalculia and dyslexia: Different behavioral profiles, yet similar neural activation patterns - Presenting Author: Lien Peters, KU Leuven; Jessica Bulthé, KU Leuven; Hans Op de Beeck, KU Leuven; Bert De Smedt, KU Leuven