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Principles underlying the design of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia
BACKGROUND: Adaptive game software has been successful in remediation of dyslexia. Here we describe the cognitive and algorithmic principles underlying the development of similar software for dyscalculia. Our software is based on current understanding of the cerebral representation of number and the...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2006
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1550244/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16734905 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-2-19 |
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author | Wilson, Anna J Dehaene, Stanislas Pinel, Philippe Revkin, Susannah K Cohen, Laurent Cohen, David |
author_facet | Wilson, Anna J Dehaene, Stanislas Pinel, Philippe Revkin, Susannah K Cohen, Laurent Cohen, David |
author_sort | Wilson, Anna J |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Adaptive game software has been successful in remediation of dyslexia. Here we describe the cognitive and algorithmic principles underlying the development of similar software for dyscalculia. Our software is based on current understanding of the cerebral representation of number and the hypotheses that dyscalculia is due to a "core deficit" in number sense or in the link between number sense and symbolic number representations. METHODS: "The Number Race" software trains children on an entertaining numerical comparison task, by presenting problems adapted to the performance level of the individual child. We report full mathematical specifications of the algorithm used, which relies on an internal model of the child's knowledge in a multidimensional "learning space" consisting of three difficulty dimensions: numerical distance, response deadline, and conceptual complexity (from non-symbolic numerosity processing to increasingly complex symbolic operations). RESULTS: The performance of the software was evaluated both by mathematical simulations and by five weeks of use by nine children with mathematical learning difficulties. The results indicate that the software adapts well to varying levels of initial knowledge and learning speeds. Feedback from children, parents and teachers was positive. A companion article [1] describes the evolution of number sense and arithmetic scores before and after training. CONCLUSION: The software, open-source and freely available online, is designed for learning disabled children aged 5–8, and may also be useful for general instruction of normal preschool children. The learning algorithm reported is highly general, and may be applied in other domains. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-1550244 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2006 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-15502442006-08-17 Principles underlying the design of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia Wilson, Anna J Dehaene, Stanislas Pinel, Philippe Revkin, Susannah K Cohen, Laurent Cohen, David Behav Brain Funct Methodology BACKGROUND: Adaptive game software has been successful in remediation of dyslexia. Here we describe the cognitive and algorithmic principles underlying the development of similar software for dyscalculia. Our software is based on current understanding of the cerebral representation of number and the hypotheses that dyscalculia is due to a "core deficit" in number sense or in the link between number sense and symbolic number representations. METHODS: "The Number Race" software trains children on an entertaining numerical comparison task, by presenting problems adapted to the performance level of the individual child. We report full mathematical specifications of the algorithm used, which relies on an internal model of the child's knowledge in a multidimensional "learning space" consisting of three difficulty dimensions: numerical distance, response deadline, and conceptual complexity (from non-symbolic numerosity processing to increasingly complex symbolic operations). RESULTS: The performance of the software was evaluated both by mathematical simulations and by five weeks of use by nine children with mathematical learning difficulties. The results indicate that the software adapts well to varying levels of initial knowledge and learning speeds. Feedback from children, parents and teachers was positive. A companion article [1] describes the evolution of number sense and arithmetic scores before and after training. CONCLUSION: The software, open-source and freely available online, is designed for learning disabled children aged 5–8, and may also be useful for general instruction of normal preschool children. The learning algorithm reported is highly general, and may be applied in other domains. BioMed Central 2006-05-30 /pmc/articles/PMC1550244/ /pubmed/16734905 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-2-19 Text en Copyright © 2006 Wilson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Methodology Wilson, Anna J Dehaene, Stanislas Pinel, Philippe Revkin, Susannah K Cohen, Laurent Cohen, David Principles underlying the design of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia |
title | Principles underlying the design of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia |
title_full | Principles underlying the design of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia |
title_fullStr | Principles underlying the design of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia |
title_full_unstemmed | Principles underlying the design of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia |
title_short | Principles underlying the design of "The Number Race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia |
title_sort | principles underlying the design of "the number race", an adaptive computer game for remediation of dyscalculia |
topic | Methodology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1550244/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16734905 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-2-19 |
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