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Related Experiment Video

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Practical Methodology of Cognitive Tasks Within a Navigational Assessment

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Young Children Intuitively Divide Before They Recognize the Division Symbol.

Emily Szkudlarek¹, Haobai Zhang¹, Nicholas K DeWind¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

|March 14, 2022

Summary

Children demonstrate an intuitive understanding of approximate division before formal math education. This innate ability, observed in both symbolic and non-symbolic tasks, suggests a foundation for later mathematical learning.

Keywords:

approximate arithmetic approximate number system arithmetic division mathematical ability number sense

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Published on: April 19, 2017

Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Mathematical Cognition
Developmental Psychology

Background:

Children possess intuitive arithmetic skills before formal mathematics instruction, including addition, subtraction, and scaling.
The extent of pre-instructional intuitive division abilities in children remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether children aged 6-9 years can perform approximate division before formal mathematical instruction.
To examine the performance of children and college students on both symbolic and non-symbolic approximate division tasks.

Main Methods:

Participants (children and adults) were presented with symbolic (Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (dot arrays) dividends and non-symbolic divisors.
Performance was assessed by comparing the estimated quotient to a target quantity.

Main Results:

Both children and adults successfully performed approximate division with both symbolic and non-symbolic stimuli.
Children unable to recognize division symbols or solve basic equations still demonstrated approximate division abilities.
Non-symbolic division ability mediated the relationship between Approximate Number System (ANS) acuity and symbolic math performance in both age groups.

Conclusions:

Intuitive approximate division abilities are present in children prior to formal mathematics education.
Non-symbolic calculation may serve as a mechanism linking the Approximate Number System (ANS) to symbolic mathematical proficiency.