The Development Of Number Processing Ability Under The Conditions Of Visual Attention

Number plays an important role in human's common life,and provides the pattern thatdescribes the living circumstances for human being.The cognitive process that peoplementally represent the numerical stimulus is defined as number processing.This basic abilityis necessary for human.Number processing consists of arithmetic cognitive processing andnumerical cognitive processing.And numerical cognitive processing is one of the mostflourishing fields in the current researches on number processing.There are close relations with number processing and attention.Without attention,peoplecould not process the numerical information,meanwhile attention' shifting and distributingwould greatly affect number processing.In the field of visual attention,attention consists ofendogenous attention and exogenous attention.The former reflects the controlling processfiom up to down,and the later reflects the automatic process from down to up.Twoattentions are obviously different on the mechanisms and the influences of cognitive process.The present study explored varied stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA)influencing thenumber processing,age-related changes and differences of high-and low-proficiencylearners of math in number processing under the conditions of different visual attentions with315 participants from third and fifth grades of primary school,second grades of junior andsenior high schools,and college.Effects of attention type,attention level,SOAs,anddifficulty in numerical tasks were examined.The eight experiments were divided into four studies.In study 1,college participants performed numerical comparison and odd/even tasks withchanging SOAs under endogenous and exogenous attentions.Experiment 1 investigated thenumber distance effect and SNARC effect of number process using numerical comparisonand odd/even tasks with changing SOAs under endogenous attention.Experiment 2investigated the number distance effect and SNARC effect using numerical comparison andodd/even tasks with changing SOAs under exogenous attention. In study 2,participants from third and five grades of primary school,second grades ofjunior and senior schools performed numerical comparison and odd/even tasks underendogenous attention.Experiment 3 investigated the number distance effect using thenumerical comparison task.Experiment 4 investigated the SNARC effect using odd/eventasks.In study 3,participants from third and five grades of primary school,second grades ofjunior and senior schools performed numerical comparison and odd/even tasks underexogenous attention.Experiment 5 investigated the number distance effect using thenumerical comparison task.Experiment 6 investigated the SNARC effect using odd/eventasks.In study 4,participants from high-and low-proficiency learners of math performednumerical comparison tasks under endogenous and exogenous attentions using the equipmentof eye movement.Experiment 7 investigated the saccades feature and number distance effectusing the numerical comparison task under endogenous attention.Experiment 8 investigatedthe saccades feature and number distance effect using the numerical comparison task underexogenous attention.The main results were as elaborated below.(1)The results indicated the development of the number processing ability increased withage fiom primary school to senior high school in the condition of visual attentions.Therewas significant difference of the ability of number processing between high-andlow-proficiency learners of math.(2)The conditions of endogenous attention influenced the number distance effect of thirdgrade primary school participant,and the SNARC effect of third and fifth grade primaryschool participants,except for the participants from junior high school and senior high school.The conditions of exogenous attention influenced the number distance effect of primaryschool participants and the SNARC effect of primary school and second grade junior highschool participants,except for the participants of second grades of senior high school.Theseresults indicated exogenous attention that influenced the number processing was moresignificant than endogenous attention.(3)The conditions of endogenous attention influenced the large number distance effect oflow-proficiency learners of math,except for high-proficiency learners of math.The conditions of exogenous attention influenced the large and small number distance effect oflow-proficiency learners of math,except for high-proficiency learners of math.These resultsindicated exogenous attention that influenced the number processing was more significantthan endogenous attention for the low-proficiency learners of math.There was no obviousdifference that both endogenous attention and exogenous attention affected the numberprocessing for the high-proficiency learners of math.(4)Under the conditions of endogenous and exogenous attentions,when the cue andnumerical target were consistent,cue could be positive to response,and improved thenumber processing of all ages participants and different proficient learners.When the cueand numerical target were inconsistent,cue could be negative to response,and reduced thenumber processing of primary school participants and low-proficiency learners.(5)Under the condition of endogenous attention,with SOAs increasing,the effects ofnumber processing were gradually increased.When SOA was 900ms,the effects were mostsignificant.Under the condition of exogenous attention,when SOA was 300ms,the effects ofnumber processing were most significant.But with the increasing of SOAs,the effects ofnumber processing were gradually decreased.These findings suggest that endogenous and exogenous attentions influence numberprocessing differently.The attention that automatically processes from up to down influencethe number processing is more significantly than the attention that controlling processes fromup to down.These two visual attentions in time course of their development would affectnumber processing differently.