Week 6: Maths Flashcards
What are domain general abilities?
Abilities not specific to maths but are important for learning in general such as our language abilities
What are domain specific abilities?
Skills specific to maths
What are some examples of domain general abilities?
Language abilities
General intelligence
Working memory
What are some examples of domain specific abilities?
Symbolic abilities
Subitizing
Object tracking
ANS
What does ANS stand for?
Approximate number system
What is the ANS?
Animals and preverbal infants have the ability to discriminate between quantities using a non-symbolic system that relies on approximate number representations.
We can quickly tell which pannel has more dots
What was Xu & Spelke’s study into the innate nature of the ANS?
Infants spent longer looking at the new quantity if they were habituated to the old one - showing they know the difference between quantities
What was McCrink and Wynn’s study into addition and subtraction in the ANS?
Infants who saw addition looked longer at 5 than 10 and infants who saw subtraction looked longer at 10 than 5
Suggests infants can tell the difference between addition and subtraction
What was Coubart’s study into the ANS and syllable counting?
Infants look longer at the dots that match the number of syllables
Couldn’t differentiate between 2 and 3 because the ratio wasn’t big enough
2 v 12 and 3 v 9 they could do
What is object tracking?
This is our ability to track small numbers - fewer than 4. When we’re quickly shown a panel of dots, we are able to count how many there are very quickly until 4, after that we need to consciously count
How did Starkey and Cooper demonstrate object tracking?
6 month olds showed sensitivity to number. They look longer when the number changes
How did Clearfield and Mix criticize studies looking into object tracking?
The fact that infants are staring longer isn’t evidence they know about numbers, just that they can see a difference in volume
What was the 2 balls study looking at object tracking?
When the researcher secretly removes the second ball, the child still looks for it which shows they’re keeping track of how many objects there are
This isn’t true for 4 objects as they lose track
What is evidence that fish have an ANS
They prefer to be in bigger groups
When given the choice, they swam to the bigger one
Not true if the ratio is only small because they used different systems
(Object tracking v ANS when looking at 3 and 5 fish)
Why did Piaget argue that maths is not innate?
Not learnt until the age of 6
can’t understand cardinal rule and will use counting terms without knowing what they mean
What is cardinal rule?
We know that the last number represents the total
How did Gelman and Mech adapt Piaget’s counting task and what did it show?
They were shown trials with a puppet and asked if the puppet was correct or incorect
Children were better able to do it which shows we can count around 3 or 4
What is the 1-1 principle?
One number per object
What is the stabe order principle?
We always say numbers in the same order otherwise they lose meaning
How does logic predict maths ability?
Understanding inverse relations and how we move up and down number scales when adding and subtracting
What factors predict maths ability?
Logic Sharing Working memory Intelligence Reasoning
What factors predict children’s abilities when they are low income?
Nursery: Ability to repeat patterns and awnser 2Which thing has more” questions
Year 1: Calculation and symbolic mapping
