Sensorimotor numerosity uniquely supports arithmetic development in children

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Mathematics Education

Background:

• Symbolic numerical thinking is a hallmark of human cognition, but its origins are debated.
• Current theories often emphasize a non-symbolic visual number sense as the foundation for numerical abilities.
• Emerging research points to a sensorimotor number system that tracks self-generated actions, but its role in mathematical development is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the link between the sensorimotor number system and mathematical competence.
• To determine if the precision of estimating self-generated actions predicts mathematical skills.
• To compare the predictive power of sensorimotor numerosity with visual numerosity estimation.

Main Methods:

• Conducted psychophysical tasks to measure estimation precision (Weber fraction) for self-generated actions, visual-temporal flashes, and dot ensembles.
• Assessed mental calculation ability.
• Employed regression analyses to examine the relationship between numerosity estimation precision and mental calculation, controlling for confounding factors.

Main Results:

• Precision in estimating self-generated actions explained approximately 30% of the variance in mental calculation ability.
• This predictive link was significantly stronger (3-15 times) than that of visual numerosity estimation (spatial and temporal).
• The association remained robust after accounting for age, reasoning abilities, motor skills, and visual numerosity precision (R² ≈ 26%).

Conclusions:

• Provides the first evidence for a specific link between the sensorimotor number system and mathematical competence.
• Suggests that sensorimotor numerical processes play a foundational role in the development of symbolic numerical cognition.
• Highlights the importance of embodied cognition in mathematical skill acquisition.