Passive hand movements disrupt adults’ counting strategies

2016

2 In the present study, we experimentally tested the role of hand motor circuits in simple-arithmetic strategies. Educated adults solved simple additions (e.g., 8+3) or simple subtractions (e.g., 11–3) while they were required to retrieve the answer from long-term memory (e.g., knowing that 8+3 = 11), to transform the problem by making an intermediate step (e.g., 8+3 = 8+2+1 = 10+1 = 11) or to count one-by-one (e.g., 8+3 = 8…9…10…11). During the process of solving the arithmetic problems, the experimenter did or did not move the participants ’ hand on a 4-point matrix. The results show that passive hand movements disrupted the counting strategy while leaving the other strategies unaffected. This pattern of results is in agreement with a procedural account, showing that the involvement of hand motor circuits in adults ’ mathematical abilities is reminiscent of finger counting during childhood.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2011

Children typically learn basic numerical and arithmetic principles using finger-based representations. However, whether or not reliance on finger-based representations is beneficial or detrimental is the subject of an ongoing debate between researchers in neurocognition and mathematics education. From the neurocognitive perspective, finger counting provides multisensory input, which conveys both cardinal and ordinal aspects of numbers. Recent data indicate that children with good finger-based numerical representations show better arithmetic skills and that training finger gnosis, or "finger sense," enhances mathematical skills. Therefore neurocognitive researchers conclude that elaborate finger-based numerical representations are beneficial for later numerical development. However, research in mathematics education recommends fostering mentally based numerical representations so as to induce children to abandon finger counting. More precisely, mathematics education recommends first using finger counting, then concrete structured representations and, finally, mental representations of numbers to perform numerical operations. Taken together, these results reveal an important debate between neurocognitive and mathematics education research concerning the benefits and detriments of finger-based strategies for numerical development. In the present review, the rationale of both lines of evidence will be discussed.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2011

processing. Moreover, found first evidence for a general effect of finger counting when pictures of finger gestures were explicitly presented in simple addition in adults. However, as the authors reported a main effect of presentation format (finger gestures vs. rods) the case of finger-based representations in arithmetic involving symbolic digital input remains to be evaluated.

NeuroImage, 2012

The embodied cognition framework suggests that neural systems for perception and action are engaged during higher cognitive processes. In an event-related fMRI study, we tested this claim for the abstract domain of numerical symbol processing: is the human cortical motor system part of the representation of numbers, and is organization of numerical knowledge influenced by individual finger counting habits? Developmental studies suggest a link between numerals and finger counting habits due to the acquisition of numerical skills through finger counting in childhood. In the present study, digits 1 to 9 and the corresponding number words were presented visually to adults with different finger counting habits, i.e. left-and right-starters who reported that they usually start counting small numbers with their left and right hand, respectively. Despite the absence of overt hand movements, the hemisphere contralateral to the hand used for counting small numbers was activated when small numbers were presented. The correspondence between finger counting habits and hemispheric motor activation is consistent with an intrinsic functional link between finger counting and number processing.

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2007

& The finding that number processing activates a cortical network partly overlapping that recruited for hand movements has renewed interest in the relationship between number and finger representations. Further evidence about a possible link between fingers and numbers comes from developmental studies showing that finger movements play a crucial role in learning counting. However, increased activity in hand motor circuits during counting may unveil unspecific processes, such as shifting attention, reciting number names, or matching items with a number name. To address this issue, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure changes in corticospinal (CS) excitability during a counting task performed silently and using either numbers or letters of the alphabet to enumerate items. We found an increased CS excitability of hand muscles during the counting task, irrespective of the use of numbers or letters, whereas it was unchanged in arm and foot muscles. Control tasks allowed us to rule out a possible influence of attention allocation or covert speech on CS excitability increase of hand muscles during counting. The present results support a specific involvement of hand motor circuits in counting because no CS changes were found in arm and foot muscles during the same task. However, the contribution of hand motor areas is not exclusively related to number processing because an increase in CS excitability was also found when letters were used to enumerate items. This finding suggests that hand motor circuits are involved whenever items have to be put in correspondence with the elements of any ordered series. & Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium D

ZDM

The idea of using fingers as a key component in arithmetic development has received a great deal of support, much of which is based on neuroscientific evidence. However, this body of work pays limited attention to how fingers are used and possible different outcomes in arithmetic problem solving. The aim of our paper, based on an analysis of 126 observations of 4-5-yearolds solving a simple subtraction task, is to discuss different ways of using fingers, with some of the ways appearing more, and others less, powerful. The analysis suggests there is much more complexity to children's finger-related strategies than prior research has indicated. Empirical findings in our study point to the decisive effects of different ways of using fingers, and in particular for either keeping track of counted units or for presenting a structured awareness of number. Three ways of using fingers emerge in the analysis, which are discussed in relation to their rate of success in solving the subtraction task and with attention to why the differences matter for the success rate. Through this discussion we suggest that the complexity of how fingers are used must be considered.

Journal of Numerical Cognition

Even though mathematics is considered one of the most abstract domains of human cognition, recent work on embodiment of mathematics has shown that we make sense of mathematical concepts by using insights and skills acquired through bodily activity. Fingers play a significant role in many of these bodily interactions. Finger-based interactions provide the preliminary access to foundational mathematical constructs, such as one-to-one correspondence and whole-part relations in early development. In addition, children across cultures use their fingers to count and do simple arithmetic. There is also some evidence for an association between children’s ability to individuate fingers (finger gnosis) and mathematics ability. Paralleling these behavioral findings, there is accumulating evidence for overlapping neural correlates and functional associations between fingers and number processing. In this paper, we synthesize mathematics education and neurocognitive research on the relevance of ...

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2016

Following on from ideas developed by Gerstmann, a body of work has suggested that impairments in finger gnosis may be causally related to children's difficulties in learning arithmetic. We report a study with a large sample of typically developing children (N=197) in which we assess finger gnosis and arithmetic, alongside a range of other relevant cognitive predictors of arithmetic skill (vocabulary, counting, symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude judgements). Contrary to some earlier claims, we find no meaningful association between finger gnosis and arithmetic skill. Counting and symbolic magnitude comparison are however powerful predictors of arithmetic skill, replicating a number of earlier findings. Our findings seriously question theories that posit either a simple association or a causal connection between finger gnosis and the development of arithmetic skills.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2013

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between finger counting and numerical processing in 4-7-year-old children. Children were assessed on a variety of numerical tasks and we examined the correlations between their rates of success and their frequency of finger use in a counting task. We showed that children's performance on finger pattern comparison and identification tasks did not correlate with the frequency of finger use. However, this last variable correlated with the percentages of correct responses in an enumeration task (i.e., GiveN task), even when the age of children was entered as a covariate in the analysis. Despite this correlation, we showed that some children who never used their fingers in the counting task were able to perform optimally in the enumeration task. Overall, our results support the conclusion that finger counting is useful but not necessary to develop accurate symbolic numerical skills. Moreover, our results suggest that the use of fingers in a counting task is related to the ability of children in a dynamic enumeration task but not to static tasks involving recognition or comparison of finger patterns. Therefore, it could be that the link between fingers and numbers remain circumscribed to counting tasks and do not extent to static finger montring situations.

Journal of Cognitive …, 2007

Developmental and cross-cultural studies show that finger-counting represents one of the basic number learning strategies. However, despite the ubiquity of such an embodied strategy, the issue of whether there is a neural link between numbers and fingers in adult, literate individuals remains debated. Here, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to study changes of excitability of hand muscles of individuals performing a visual parity judgment task, a task not requiring counting, on Arabic numerals from 1 to 9. While no modulation was observed for the left hand muscles, an increase in amplitude of motor evoked potentials was found for the right hand muscles. This increase was specific for smaller numbers (1 to 4) as compared to larger numbers (6 to 9). These findings indicate a close relationship between hand/finger and numerical representations.