Development of spatial preferences for counting and picture naming
- The direction of object enumeration reflects children's enculturation but previous work on the development of such spatial preferences has been inconsistent. Therefore, we documented directional preferences in finger counting, object counting, and picture naming for children (4 groups from 3 to 6 years, N = 104) and adults (N = 56). We found a right-side preference for finger counting in 3- to 6-year-olds and a left-side preference for counting objects and naming pictures by 6 years of age. Children were consistent in their special preferences when comparing object counting and picture naming, but not in other task pairings. Finally, spatial preferences were not related to cardinality comprehension. These results, together with other recent work, suggest a gradual development of spatial-numerical associations from early non-directional mappings into culturally constrained directional mappings.
| Author details: | Birgit Knudsen, Martin H. FischerORCiDGND, Gisa Aschersleben |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-014-0623-z |
| ISSN: | 0340-0727 |
| ISSN: | 1430-2772 |
| Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25326847 |
| Title of parent work (English): | Psychological research : an international journal of perception, attention, memory, and action |
| Publisher: | Springer |
| Place of publishing: | Heidelberg |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Year of first publication: | 2015 |
| Publication year: | 2015 |
| Release date: | 2017/03/27 |
| Volume: | 79 |
| Issue: | 6 |
| Number of pages: | 11 |
| First page: | 939 |
| Last Page: | 949 |
| Funding institution: | DFG [FI 1915/2-1] |
| Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
| Institution name at the time of the publication: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Exzellenzbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |
