| Popis: |
Low numeracy is associated with a range of economic and social costs. Learning to map non-symbolic representations of number (e.g., ‘•••••’) onto symbolic ones (e.g., ‘5’) is a critical step in numerical development. We asked whether non-symbolic representations could become symbolic through repeated exposure. Participants judged numerosity by adding two dice with faces that were digits, canonical dot configurations (standard dice), or non-canonical dot configurations. At first, response times to sum non-canonical configurations increased steeply and approximately linearly with number (~120 ms per dot), suggesting serial enumeration. In contrast, response times to sum digits and canonical configurations increased only marginally with number (~20 ms per dot), suggesting that both were processed as symbols. Each participant then performed the task in eight one-hour sessions over two weeks, using a consistent set of non-canonical dot configurations. Learning occurred quickly despite the absence of feedback or explicit instruction. The response-time slope became shallower with each session, signifying a shift from serial enumeration to symbolic processing; ultimately it was statistically indistinguishable from the slope for canonical dice. Learning transferred to untrained dice sums, but not to untrained noncanonical dot configurations; and the advantage of trained configurations remained after 3 and 12 months without intervening retraining. These findings suggest that the novel configurations became symbolic representations of exact number for the participants. |
