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Preschoolers' Precision of the Approximate Number System Predicts Later School Mathematics Performance

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  • Michèle M M Mazzocco
  • Lisa Feigenson
  • Justin Halberda

Abstract

The Approximate Number System (ANS) is a primitive mental system of nonverbal representations that supports an intuitive sense of number in human adults, children, infants, and other animal species. The numerical approximations produced by the ANS are characteristically imprecise and, in humans, this precision gradually improves from infancy to adulthood. Throughout development, wide ranging individual differences in ANS precision are evident within age groups. These individual differences have been linked to formal mathematics outcomes, based on concurrent, retrospective, or short-term longitudinal correlations observed during the school age years. However, it remains unknown whether this approximate number sense actually serves as a foundation for these school mathematics abilities. Here we show that ANS precision measured at preschool, prior to formal instruction in mathematics, selectively predicts performance on school mathematics at 6 years of age. In contrast, ANS precision does not predict non-numerical cognitive abilities. To our knowledge, these results provide the first evidence for early ANS precision, measured before the onset of formal education, predicting later mathematical abilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Michèle M M Mazzocco & Lisa Feigenson & Justin Halberda, 2011. "Preschoolers' Precision of the Approximate Number System Predicts Later School Mathematics Performance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(9), pages 1-8, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0023749
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023749
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    1. Justin Halberda & Michèle M. M. Mazzocco & Lisa Feigenson, 2008. "Individual differences in non-verbal number acuity correlate with maths achievement," Nature, Nature, vol. 455(7213), pages 665-668, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Danielle Hoffmann & Christophe Mussolin & Romain Martin & Christine Schiltz, 2014. "The Impact of Mathematical Proficiency on the Number-Space Association," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, January.
    2. Carmen Brankaer & Pol Ghesquière & Bert De Smedt, 2014. "Children’s Mapping between Non-Symbolic and Symbolic Numerical Magnitudes and Its Association with Timed and Untimed Tests of Mathematics Achievement," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-11, April.
    3. Tristan Roger & Wael Bousselmi & Patrick Roger & Marc Willinger, 2018. "Another law of small numbers: patterns of trading prices in experimental markets," CEE-M Working Papers hal-01954921, CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro.
    4. Rasheda Khanam & Son Nghiem, 2016. "Family Income and Child Cognitive and Noncognitive Development in Australia: Does Money Matter?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(3), pages 597-621, June.
    5. Lukowski, Sarah L. & Rosenberg-Lee, Miriam & Thompson, Lee A. & Hart, Sara A. & Willcutt, Erik G. & Olson, Richard K. & Petrill, Stephen A. & Pennington, Bruce F., 2017. "Approximate number sense shares etiological overlap with mathematics and general cognitive ability," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 67-74.
    6. Marie-Claire Cammaerts & Roger Cammaerts, 2021. "Young Ants Already Possess a Mental Number Line," International Journal of Biology, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(2), pages 1-1, December.
    7. Julie Castronovo & Silke M Göbel, 2012. "Impact of High Mathematics Education on the Number Sense," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(4), pages 1-16, April.
    8. Sarah A Gray & Robert A Reeve, 2014. "Preschoolers' Dot Enumeration Abilities Are Markers of Their Arithmetic Competence," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-11, April.
    9. Kyungmin Lee & Soohyun Cho, 2019. "Visuo-spatial (but not verbal) executive working memory capacity modulates susceptibility to non-numerical visual magnitudes during numerosity comparison," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, March.

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