A Development Research About The Influence Of Endogenous And Exogenous Attention On Number Processing

The investigation on the mechanism of number processing is one of the hot topics of psychology. Currently, the research of number processing has been changed from separately on number to connect number with other cognitive process, which could help to explore the influence of other cognitive process on number processing and know more about mechanism of number processing. The spatial attention shift can be classified as endogenous attention and exogenous attention. Endogenous attention is arosed by behavior goals, whereas exogenous attention is summoned by exterior stimulate in the environment.The relation of attention and number processing has been attracted more and more researchers. At present, there have been many researches about the influence of attention on number processing, and gained some conclusions. However, few study focused on the influence of attention on number processing stages. On the other hand, education and age also influence on number processing. Therefore, this study was conducted using Posner's endogenous cue and exogenous cue experimental paradigms to investigate the stages and the distance effect of number processing with equipment of EYEL1NK II. Participants were 22 students of grade 3, 21 students of grade 6 from primary school and 23 adults. The study explored two contents: (1) the influence of different attention on number processing stages; (2) the influence of different attention on different participants' distance effect.The main findings of this study were as follows:(1) Perceptual representation stage on number processing was significant influenced by the exogenous cue validity rather the endogenous cue validity.(2) Under both of the two attention, the influence of subjects type on perceptual representation stage was significantly different. The interaction between cue validity and subjects type had a significant effect on number perceptual representation stage;(3) The two cue validities and subjects type had no significant effect on motor execution stage;(4) The ability of number processing was developed as age increases, while the capability of reaction execution had no significant difference between the 9 years old children and the adults;(5) The influence of subjects type on distance effect was significantly different. The distance effect was occurred in perceptual representation stage, and was independent of the motor execution stage.