Sex Differences In The Development Of Children's Symbolic Number Processing

Previous studies found that the sex differences on mathematical ability are common.During the development of mathematical ability,symbolic number processing plays a very important role,it can help people understand or process number symbols of specific cultural.As one of the vital factors of mathematical ability,whether sex differences are present in symbolic number processing is a problem worth to think about.There are two basic approach to measure symbolic number processing,number comparison as well as number line estimation respectively.Although both aim at symbolic number processing,the mechanism of them are different.Moreover,as the growth of the age,number comparison and number line estimation will emerge certain developmental features.Therefore,sex differences in these two types of task may present certain developmental trends.The current research adopted uniform paradigm to examine sex differences in the development of symbolic number processing in 4-7 year old children.Experiment 1 to 3 examined 4.5,6,7 years old children in 0-20,0-100,0-100 number comparison and number line estimation,which found that children aged 4.5 were capable of completing 0-20 number comparison,no significant sex differences exist;But they failed to complete number line estimation in the same range.As the age increased,6 years old children showed no significant gender differences on 0-100 number comparison,but a remarkable male advantage appeared on number line estimation;When entered primary school and accepted formal mathematics education,7 years old children in 0-100 number comparison still had no significant gender differences,but the developing gap between girls and boys disappeared on number line estimation.Based on Experiment 3,Experiment 4 further explored the effect of task difficulty in number comparison and number line estimation in 7 years old children.The results found that 7 years old children in 0-1000 number comparison was no gender difference either,but male advantage in number line estimation showed up again.In sum,our research found children ages 4 to 7 had no gender difference in number comparison,but boys performed better in number line estimation at the age of 6.Affected by education and age,this male advantages disappeared in 7 year old children.When the task difficulty increased,which mean the number range expanded,male advantage in number line estimation re-emerged.The current results filled the blank of symbolic number processing gender differences research in preschool children,prompted us pay close attention to girl's development of number line estimation.