TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lonnemann, Jan
A1  - Li, Su
A1  - Zhao, Pei
A1  - Li, Peng
A1  - Linkersdörfer, Janosch
A1  - Lindberg, Sven
A1  - Hasselhorn, Marcus
A1  - Yan, Song
T1  - Differences in arithmetic performance between Chinese and German adults are accompanied by differences in processing of non-symbolic numerical magnitude
T2  - PLoS one
N2  - Human beings are assumed to possess an approximate number system (ANS) dedicated to extracting and representing approximate numerical magnitude information. The ANS is assumed to be fundamental to arithmetic learning and has been shown to be associated with arithmetic performance. It is, however, still a matter of debate whether better arithmetic skills are reflected in the ANS. To address this issue, Chinese and German adults were compared regarding their performance in simple arithmetic tasks and in a non-symbolic numerical magnitude comparison task. Chinese participants showed a better performance in solving simple arithmetic tasks and faster reaction times in the non-symbolic numerical magnitude comparison task without making more errors than their German peers. These differences in performance could not be ascribed to differences in general cognitive abilities. Better arithmetic skills were thus found to be accompanied by a higher speed of retrieving non-symbolic numerical magnitude knowledge but not by a higher precision of non-symbolic numerical magnitude representations. The group difference in the speed of retrieving non-symbolic numerical magnitude knowledge was fully mediated by the performance in arithmetic tasks, suggesting that arithmetic skills shape non-symbolic numerical magnitude processing skills.
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/43250
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-432509
SN  - 1932-6203
N1  - Copyright: © 2017 Lonnemann et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
VL  - 12
IS  - (4): e0174991
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
PB  - PLoS
CY  - Lawrence, Kan.
ER  -