Do preschool children use spatial coding for serial order in working memory: a replication study

Poster (2023, June 06)

The ordinal position effect (OPE) refers to the tendency to categorize items from the beginning/end of a memorized sequence with left/right-sided responses, respectively. It is considered as evidence that ... [more ▼]

The ordinal position effect (OPE) refers to the tendency to categorize items from the beginning/end of a memorized sequence with left/right-sided responses, respectively. It is considered as evidence that serial order in WM relies on spatial coding mechanisms. The effect has been well replicated in adults, where it is shown to depend on reading direction. Conversely, so far, only one study (van Dijck, Abrahamse, & Fias, 2020) has assessed the OPE in preliterate children. They found that even though the effect was not significant at the group level, about one third of the children already associated serial order with space, yet with no uniform direction. In the present study, we aimed to replicate these findings in 156 preschool children (mean age: 6.4 years). No systematic spatial coding was observed at the group level. However, individual analysis showed a reliable OPE in 34% of the children. Among those, 58.5% coded from right-to-left while 41.5% were left-to-right mappers. Our findings are thus in line with the results of van Dijck et al. (2020) and support their conclusions that spatial coding of serial order in WM does not depend on the ability to read and write but is likely calibrated by it. [less ▲]

The prevalence of number-space associations in preschool children

Scientific Conference (2023, March 28)

The SNARC effect, i.e., the association of small/large numbers to the left/right side of space respectively, is widely studied in adults and generally observed at the group level in about 76% of the ... [more ▼]

The SNARC effect, i.e., the association of small/large numbers to the left/right side of space respectively, is widely studied in adults and generally observed at the group level in about 76% of the participants. However, Cipora et al.,(2019) showed that when using a bootstrapping approach to analyze the consistency of the SNARC effect at the individual level, its prevalence decreased to about 40%. To date studies on the SNARC effect in children are scarce and, so far, none explored it at the individual level. Therefore, our aim was (1) to test whether preschoolers show a SNARC effect at the group level and (2) to determine the prevalence of children with a consistent SNARC effect. Based on the methodology suggested by Cipora et al., (2019), we tested 136 preschool children (Mean Age: 6.3 years old) in the final year of kindergarten with a magnitude judgment task. Descriptively and at the group level, 67% of the children revealed a regular SNARC effect (p<.001). Nevertheless, bootstrapping analysis, with an 80% confidence interval, showed that the prevalence of children with a consistent regular SNARC decreased to 37% and that even 19% had an inverted consistent SNARC. The prevalence of regular SNARC is thus equivalent to the one observed in adults when tested with a parity judgment task. Our results suggest that access to a spatially oriented numerical representation emerges at an early developmental stage, with, however, only a minority consistently showing the SNARC effect. [less ▲]