The Role Of Inhibitory Control In The Development Of Number Sense And Magnitude Sense

Quantity usually appears in the form of collective name,and can also be called(discrete)number and(continuous)magnitude.For example,in the classic stimulusdot arrays of quantitative representation research,the number of points is the(discrete)number,and the area and size of the points are the(continuous)magnitudes.Quantitative representation theory(such as approximate number system theory)has been widely accepted since its development,but the biggest problem of this theory is that it abbreviates the "sense of magnitude" as "sense of number",does not distinguish the separate effects of number and quantity,and even attributes the "sense of magnitude" to "sense of number",which is obviously not acceptable.Therefore,the rise of " magnitude sense" research directly denies the basic view of number sense theory: number sense is a basic,natural and automatic ability shared by humans and animals,and proposes that sense of magnitude is a more basic,natural and automatic ability.But later the debate over the role of number and magnitude has continued.In recent years,Leibovich(2017)proposed a theoretical model of number concept development from the perspective of longitudinal development.The model believes that human beings are born with a sense of magnitude,not a sense of number.Over time,individuals learn the relationship between number and magnitude from experience(including positive correlation and negative correlation: for example,two watermelons are more than one apple(the number is more,the volume is larger—positive correlation of number and magnitude),a watermelon is less than two apples(less in number,but larger in volume—the number is negatively correlated with the magnitude)],where the number representation of negative correlation requires the effect of individual inhibition.Therefore,with the development of inhibitory control,number sense can develop better.However,the theoretical model only stays at the theoretical level and has not been verified by experiments.Based on this,this research aims to verify the relative level and development trend of children and adolescents’ number and magnitude abilities.And by detecting the inhibitory control of individuals in two age groups,to further analyze the role of inhibitory control in the development of number sense and magnitude sense.Experiment 1 verified the relative level of children’s number sense and magnitude sense ability.Taking 62 fourth-grade children as the research objects and conducting individual tests.Creating a dot arrays of positive correlation(consistent condition)and negative correlation(inconsistent condition)between number and magnitude as the experimental stimulus,and the task is the point number comparison task of detecting number sense ability and the convex hull comparison task of detecting magnitude sense ability.Perform 2(task type: convex hull comparison task,point number comparison task)×2(consistency: consistent,inconsistent)×2(quantity ratio: large ratio,small ratio)repeated measurement analysis of variance,the results found that the interaction between task type and consistency was significant.Further simple effect analysis show that: compared with the convex hull comparison task,the consistency effect(inconsistent conditional response time-consistent conditional response time)of children in the point number comparison task is greater,indicating that the convex hull interferes more with children.That is,children’s sense of magnitude ability is higher than that of number sense.Experiment 2 verified the relative level of the youth’s number sense and magnitude sense ability.59 high school first-year teenagers were taken as the research objects and were tested in groups.The research methods and analysis methods were the same as those in Experiment 1.It turns out that the interaction between consistency and task type is not significant,indicating that the number of points and convex hulls interfere with each other to the same degree.That is,the number sense and the sense of magnitude ability of teenagers are equal.Based on the development law of number sense and magnitude sense presented in experiments one and two,experiment three used stroop task to detect the inhibitory control of these two age groups,and divided each age group into a high inhibition control group and a low inhibition control group in half.Perform 2(task type: convex hull comparison task,point number comparison task)× 2(consistency: consistent,inconsistent)× 2(subject category: children,adolescents)× 2(inhibition control: high,low)mixed design analysis of variance.The results found that the interaction between task,consistency,and inhibitory control is significant.Further simple effect analysis show that children and adolescents with high inhibitory control have greater consistency effects in the convex hull comparison task than children and adolescents with low inhibitory control,and in the comparison task,the consistency effect is smaller.This shows that children and adolescents with high inhibitory control can inhibit magnitude interference more than children and adolescents with low inhibitory control.That is,the ability of number sense is relatively stronger.Therefore,Experiments 1 and 2 of this research have verified the relatively development law of number sense and magnitude sense in children and adolescents.Children have a higher magnitude sense ability,and adolescents have the same sense of magnitude and number.That is to say,teenagers have better number sense ability than children.Then,Experiment 3 verified the interference effect of inhibitory control amount in the process of increasing number sense ability.