TY - JOUR A1 - Stapel, Janny C. A1 - Hunnius, Sabine A1 - Bekkering, Harold A1 - Lindemann, Oliver T1 - The development of numerosity estimation: Evidence for a linear number representation early in life JF - Journal of cognitive psychology N2 - Several studies investigating the development of approximate number representations used the number-to-position task and reported evidence for a shift from a logarithmic to a linear representation of numerical magnitude with increasing age. However, this interpretation as well as the number-to-position method itself has been questioned recently. The current study tested 5- and 8-year-old children on a newly established numerosity production task to examine developmental changes in number representations and to test the idea of a representational shift. Modelling of the children's numerical estimations revealed that responses of the 8-year-old children approximate a simple positive linear relation between estimated and actual numbers. Interestingly, however, the estimations of the 5-year-old children were best described by a bilinear model reflecting a relatively accurate linear representation of small numbers and no apparent magnitude knowledge for large numbers. Taken together, our findings provide no support for a shift of mental representations from a logarithmic to a linear metric but rather suggest that the range of number words which are appropriately conceptualised and represented by linear analogue magnitude codes expands during development. KW - Numerical estimation KW - Number cognition KW - Development KW - Bilinear models KW - Number representation Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2014.995668 SN - 2044-5911 SN - 2044-592X VL - 27 IS - 4 SP - 400 EP - 412 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Krause, Florian A1 - Meyer, Marlene A1 - Bekkering, Harold A1 - Hunnius, Sabine A1 - Lindemann, Oliver T1 - Interaction between perceptual and motor magnitudes in early childhood JF - Cognitive development N2 - Recent research has suggested that all types of size-related information are linked by a generalised system that codes for domain-independent magnitudes. This generalized system is further suggested to be acquired through everyday sensorimotor experiences with contingencies of size-related information in the real world. The aim of the present study was to investigate the existence of this common representation and its impact on the coupling of perception and action in early childhood. According to an embodied view on magnitude representation, an association between perceived magnitude information and size-related motor features, such as applied motor force, should emerge as soon as motor control is sufficiently developed. This hypothesis was tested in 2.5- to 3-year-old toddlers by engaging them in a computer game-like experimental task in which they were required to move objects placed on a platform upwards by pressing a button. The amount of objects was varied systematically (small amount: 3 vs. large amount: 15) and the force children applied on the button while moving the objects was recorded. Importantly, the amount of applied force was not relevant for successfully playing the game. The analysis of the peak force revealed that motor responses were executed more forcefully when children were presented with a large amount of objects compared to a small amount, irrespective of the toddler’s motor abilities which were evaluated by two additional measures (force control and general fine motor skills). This general effect of perceived magnitude information on the task-irrelevant applied motor force confirms our notion that a link between perceptual and motor magnitudes exists already in early childhood and provides new evidence for a sensorimotor grounding of magnitude concepts. KW - Perception-action coupling KW - Generalised magnitude system KW - Embodied cognition KW - motor development Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.11.001 SN - 0885-2014 SN - 1879-226X VL - 49 SP - 11 EP - 19 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Kayhan Wagner, Ezgi A1 - Meyer, Marlene A1 - O’Reilly, J.X. A1 - Hunnius, Sabine A1 - Bekkering, Harold T1 - Nine-month-old infants update their predictive models of a changing environment T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Humans generate internal models of their environment to predict events in the world. As the environments change, our brains adjust to these changes by updating their internal models. Here, we investigated whether and how 9-month-old infants differentially update their models to represent a dynamic environment. Infants observed a predictable sequence of stimuli, which were interrupted by two types of cues. Following the update cue, the pattern was altered, thus, infants were expected to update their predictions for the upcoming stimuli. Because the pattern remained the same after the no-update cue, no subsequent updating was required. Infants showed an amplified negative central (Nc) response when the predictable sequence was interrupted. Late components such as the PSW were also evoked in response to unexpected stimuli; however, we found no evidence for a differential response to the informational value of surprising cues at later stages of processing. Infants rather learned that surprising cues always signal a change in the environment that requires updating. Interestingly, infants responded with an amplified neural response to the absence of an expected change, suggesting a top-down modulation of early sensory processing in infants. Our findings corroborate emerging evidence showing that infants build predictive models early in life. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 577 KW - Internal models KW - Predictive models KW - Predictive processing KW - Development KW - Event-Related potentials Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-437844 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 577 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kayhan, Ezgi A1 - Heil, Lieke A1 - Kwisthout, Johan A1 - van Rooij, Iris A1 - Hunnius, Sabine A1 - Bekkering, Harold T1 - Young children integrate current observations, priors and agent information to predict others’ actions JF - PLOS ONE / Public Library of Science N2 - From early on in life, children are able to use information from their environment to form predictions about events. For instance, they can use statistical information about a population to predict the sample drawn from that population and infer an agent’s preferences from systematic violations of random sampling. We investigated whether and how young children infer an agent’s sampling biases. Moreover, we examined whether pupil data of toddlers follow the predictions of a computational model based on the causal Bayesian network formalization of predictive processing. We formalized three hypotheses about how different explanatory variables (i.e., prior probabilities, current observations, and agent characteristics) are used to predict others’ actions. We measured pupillary responses as a behavioral marker of ‘prediction errors’ (i.e., the perceived mismatch between what one’s model of an agent predicts and what the agent actually does). Pupillary responses of 24-month-olds, but not 18-month-olds, showed that young children integrated information about current observations, priors and agents to make predictions about agents and their actions. These findings shed light on the mechanisms behind toddlers’ inferences about agent-caused events. To our knowledge, this is the first study in which young children's pupillary responses are used as markers of prediction errors, which were qualitatively compared to the predictions by a computational model based on the causal Bayesian network formalization of predictive processing. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200976 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 14 IS - 5 PB - PLOS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kayhan Wagner, Ezgi A1 - Meyer, Marlene A1 - O’Reilly, J.X. A1 - Hunnius, Sabine A1 - Bekkering, Harold T1 - Nine-month-old infants update their predictive models of a changing environment JF - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience : a journal for cognitive, affective and social developmental neuroscience N2 - Humans generate internal models of their environment to predict events in the world. As the environments change, our brains adjust to these changes by updating their internal models. Here, we investigated whether and how 9-month-old infants differentially update their models to represent a dynamic environment. Infants observed a predictable sequence of stimuli, which were interrupted by two types of cues. Following the update cue, the pattern was altered, thus, infants were expected to update their predictions for the upcoming stimuli. Because the pattern remained the same after the no-update cue, no subsequent updating was required. Infants showed an amplified negative central (Nc) response when the predictable sequence was interrupted. Late components such as the PSW were also evoked in response to unexpected stimuli; however, we found no evidence for a differential response to the informational value of surprising cues at later stages of processing. Infants rather learned that surprising cues always signal a change in the environment that requires updating. Interestingly, infants responded with an amplified neural response to the absence of an expected change, suggesting a top-down modulation of early sensory processing in infants. Our findings corroborate emerging evidence showing that infants build predictive models early in life. KW - Internal models KW - Predictive models KW - Predictive processing KW - Development KW - Event-Related potentials Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100680 SN - 1878-9293 SN - 1878-9307 VL - 38 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -