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Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia

BACKGROUND: The question whether Developmental Dyscalculia (DD; a deficit in the ability to process numerical information) is the result of deficiencies in the non symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., a group of dots) or in the symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., Arabic numera...

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Autores principales: Furman, Tamar, Rubinsten, Orly
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3527185/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23190433
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-8-55
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author Furman, Tamar
Rubinsten, Orly
author_facet Furman, Tamar
Rubinsten, Orly
author_sort Furman, Tamar
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The question whether Developmental Dyscalculia (DD; a deficit in the ability to process numerical information) is the result of deficiencies in the non symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., a group of dots) or in the symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., Arabic numerals) has been debated in scientific literature. It is accepted that the non symbolic system is divided into two different ranges, the subitizing range (i.e., quantities from 1-4) which is processed automatically and quickly, and the counting range (i.e., quantities larger than 4) which is an attention demanding procedure and is therefore processed serially and slowly. However, so far no study has tested the automaticity of symbolic and non symbolic representation in DD participants separately for the subitizing and the counting ranges. METHODS: DD and control participants undergo a novel version of the Stroop task, i.e., the Enumeration Stroop. They were presented with a random series of between one and nine written digits, and were asked to name either the relevant written digit (in the symbolic task) or the relevant quantity of digits (in the non symbolic task) while ignoring the irrelevant aspect. RESULT: DD participants, unlike the control group, didn't show any congruency effect in the subitizing range of the non symbolic task. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that DD may be impaired in the ability to process symbolic numerical information or in the ability to automatically associate the two systems (i.e., the symbolic vs. the non symbolic). Additionally DD have deficiencies in the non symbolic counting range.
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spelling pubmed-35271852012-12-21 Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia Furman, Tamar Rubinsten, Orly Behav Brain Funct Research BACKGROUND: The question whether Developmental Dyscalculia (DD; a deficit in the ability to process numerical information) is the result of deficiencies in the non symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., a group of dots) or in the symbolic numerical representation system (e.g., Arabic numerals) has been debated in scientific literature. It is accepted that the non symbolic system is divided into two different ranges, the subitizing range (i.e., quantities from 1-4) which is processed automatically and quickly, and the counting range (i.e., quantities larger than 4) which is an attention demanding procedure and is therefore processed serially and slowly. However, so far no study has tested the automaticity of symbolic and non symbolic representation in DD participants separately for the subitizing and the counting ranges. METHODS: DD and control participants undergo a novel version of the Stroop task, i.e., the Enumeration Stroop. They were presented with a random series of between one and nine written digits, and were asked to name either the relevant written digit (in the symbolic task) or the relevant quantity of digits (in the non symbolic task) while ignoring the irrelevant aspect. RESULT: DD participants, unlike the control group, didn't show any congruency effect in the subitizing range of the non symbolic task. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that DD may be impaired in the ability to process symbolic numerical information or in the ability to automatically associate the two systems (i.e., the symbolic vs. the non symbolic). Additionally DD have deficiencies in the non symbolic counting range. BioMed Central 2012-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC3527185/ /pubmed/23190433 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-8-55 Text en Copyright ©2012 Furman and Rubinsten; 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 Research
Furman, Tamar
Rubinsten, Orly
Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia
title Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia
title_full Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia
title_fullStr Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia
title_full_unstemmed Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia
title_short Symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia
title_sort symbolic and non symbolic numerical representation in adults with and without developmental dyscalculia
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3527185/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23190433
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-8-55
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