Explaining variability: Numerical representations in 4- to 8-year old children

Abstract

Past research has found strong evidence for a mental number line that develops from a logarithmic to a more linear representation. The present study aims to examine the sources of individual differences associated with this development. Sources under investigation are age, gender, counting skills and executive functioning, and are set out against mental number lines from 0 to 10 and 0 to 100 in a sample of 4- to 8-year old children (N = 80). Findings indicate that executive functioning is the most important predictor of the shape of the mental number line, with number lines from 0 to 10 being linear to a large extent and number lines from 0 to 100 developing from a random pattern towards logarithmic representations. The shape of the mental number line was found not to be a very good predictor of the number comparison task.