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Syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic
Representing the base-10 structure of numbers is a challenging cognitive ability, unique to humans, but it is yet unknown how precisely this is done. Here, we examined whether and how literate adults represent a number’s full syntactic structure. In 5 experiments, participants repeated number-word s...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Springer International Publishing
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9259776/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35792977 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41235-022-00409-2 |
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author | Dotan, Dror Brutmann, Nadin |
author_facet | Dotan, Dror Brutmann, Nadin |
author_sort | Dotan, Dror |
collection | PubMed |
description | Representing the base-10 structure of numbers is a challenging cognitive ability, unique to humans, but it is yet unknown how precisely this is done. Here, we examined whether and how literate adults represent a number’s full syntactic structure. In 5 experiments, participants repeated number-word sequences and we systematically varied the order of words within each sequence. Repetition on grammatical sequences (e.g., two hundred ninety-seven) was better than on non-grammatical ones (hundred seven two ninety). We conclude that the participants represented the number’s full syntactic structure and used it to merge number words into chunks in short-term memory. Accuracy monotonously improved for sequences with increasingly longer grammatical segments, up to a limit of ~ 4 words per segment, irrespectively of the number of digits, and worsened thereafter. Namely, short chunks improved memorization, whereas oversized chunks disrupted memorization. This chunk size limit suggests that the chunks are not based on predefined structures, whose size limit is not expected to be so low, but are created ad hoc by a generative process, such as the hierarchical syntactic representation hypothesized in Michael McCloskey’s number-processing model. Chunking occurred even when it disrupted performance, as in the oversized chunks, and even when external cues for chunking were controlled for or were removed. We conclude that the above generative process operates automatically rather than voluntarily. To date, this is the most detailed account of the core representation of the syntactic structure of numbers—a critical aspect of numerical literacy and of the ability to read and write numbers. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41235-022-00409-2. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9259776 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92597762022-07-08 Syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic Dotan, Dror Brutmann, Nadin Cogn Res Princ Implic Original Article Representing the base-10 structure of numbers is a challenging cognitive ability, unique to humans, but it is yet unknown how precisely this is done. Here, we examined whether and how literate adults represent a number’s full syntactic structure. In 5 experiments, participants repeated number-word sequences and we systematically varied the order of words within each sequence. Repetition on grammatical sequences (e.g., two hundred ninety-seven) was better than on non-grammatical ones (hundred seven two ninety). We conclude that the participants represented the number’s full syntactic structure and used it to merge number words into chunks in short-term memory. Accuracy monotonously improved for sequences with increasingly longer grammatical segments, up to a limit of ~ 4 words per segment, irrespectively of the number of digits, and worsened thereafter. Namely, short chunks improved memorization, whereas oversized chunks disrupted memorization. This chunk size limit suggests that the chunks are not based on predefined structures, whose size limit is not expected to be so low, but are created ad hoc by a generative process, such as the hierarchical syntactic representation hypothesized in Michael McCloskey’s number-processing model. Chunking occurred even when it disrupted performance, as in the oversized chunks, and even when external cues for chunking were controlled for or were removed. We conclude that the above generative process operates automatically rather than voluntarily. To date, this is the most detailed account of the core representation of the syntactic structure of numbers—a critical aspect of numerical literacy and of the ability to read and write numbers. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41235-022-00409-2. Springer International Publishing 2022-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9259776/ /pubmed/35792977 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41235-022-00409-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Original Article Dotan, Dror Brutmann, Nadin Syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic |
title | Syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic |
title_full | Syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic |
title_fullStr | Syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic |
title_full_unstemmed | Syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic |
title_short | Syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic |
title_sort | syntactic chunking reveals a core syntactic representation of multi-digit numbers, which is generative and automatic |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9259776/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35792977 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41235-022-00409-2 |
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