Title :

Numerical and nonnumerical estimation in children with and without mathematical learning disabilities

Author(s) :

Mejias, Sandrine [Auteur]
Laboratoire Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives - UMR 9193 [SCALab]
Mussolin, Christophe [Auteur]
Ecole de Santé Publique [Université Libre de Bruxelles]
Rousselle, Laurence [Auteur]
Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain [UCL]
Grégoire, Jacques [Auteur]
Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain [UCL]
Noël, Marie-Pascale [Auteur]
Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain [UCL]

Journal title :

Child Neuropsychology

Abbreviated title :

Child Neuropsychology

Volume number :

18

Pages :

550-575

Publisher :

Informa UK Limited

Publication date :

2011-11-28

HAL domain(s) :

Sciences cognitives

English abstract : [en]

There are currently multiple explanations for mathematical learning disabilities (MLD). The present study focused on those assuming that MLD are due to a basic numerical deficit affecting the ability to represent and to ...
Show more >There are currently multiple explanations for mathematical learning disabilities (MLD). The present study focused on those assuming that MLD are due to a basic numerical deficit affecting the ability to represent and to manipulate number magnitude (Butterworth, 1999, 2005; A. J. Wilson & Dehaene, 2007) and/or to access that number magnitude representation from numerical symbols (Rousselle & Noël, 2007). The present study provides an original contribution to this issue by testing MLD children (carefully selected on the basis of preserved abilities in other domains) on numerical estimation tasks with contrasting symbolic (Arabic numerals) and nonsymbolic (collection of dots) numbers used as input or output. MLD children performed consistently less accurately than control children on all the estimation tasks. However, MLD children were even weaker when the task involved the mapping between symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers than when the task required a mapping between two nonsymbolic numerical formats. Moreover, in the estimation of nonsymbolic numerosities, MLD children relied more than control children on perceptual cues such as the cumulative area of the dots. Finally, the task requiring a mapping from a nonsymbolic format to a symbolic format was the best predictor of MLD. In order to explain these present results, as well as those reported in the literature, we propose that the impoverished number magnitude representation of MLD children may arise from an initial mapping deficit between number symbols and that magnitude representation.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Audience :

Non spécifiée

Administrative institution(s) :

Université de Lille
CNRS
CHU Lille

Collections :

• Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives (SCALab) - UMR 9193

Submission date :

2020-10-02T14:06:07Z
2020-11-23T08:59:11Z