Observation of Directional Storybook Reading Influences Young Children's Counting Direction

Overview

Journal J Exp Child Psychol

Specialties Pediatrics
Psychology

Date 2017 Sep 3

PMID 28865295

Citations 15

Authors

Silke M Gobel

Koleen McCrink

Martin H Fischer

Samuel Shaki

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Even before formal schooling, children map numbers onto space in a directional manner. The origin of this preliterate spatial-numerical association is still debated. We investigated the role of enculturation for shaping the directionality of the association between numbers and space, focusing on counting behavior in 3- to 5-year-old preliterate children. Two studies provide evidence that, after observing reading from storybooks (left-to-right or right-to-left reading) children change their counting direction in line with the direction of observed reading. Just observing visuospatial directional movements had no such effect on counting direction. Complementarily, we document that book illustrations, prevalent in children's cultures, exhibit directionality that conforms to the direction of a culture's written language. We propose that shared book reading activates spatiotemporal representations of order in young children, which in turn affect their spatial representation of numbers.

Citing Articles

Does the Brain Care Which Direction We Read? A Cross-Cultural tDCS Study on Functional Lateralization of Number Processing.

Bahreini N, Artemenko C, Plewnia C, Rostami R, Nuerk H Brain Behav. 2025; 15(3):e70353.

PMID: 40059401 PMC: 11891265. DOI: 10.1002/brb3.70353.

One direction? Cultural aspects of the mental number line beyond reading direction.

Bulut M, Roth L, Bahreini N, Cipora K, Reips U, Nuerk H Psychol Res. 2024; 89(1):37.

PMID: 39710792 PMC: 11663824. DOI: 10.1007/s00426-024-02038-4.

Ordinality and Verbal Framing Influence Preschoolers' Memory for Spatial Structure.

Branyan H, Fridman E, Shaki S, McCrink K J Cogn Dev. 2023; 24(1):142-159.

PMID: 36968949 PMC: 10038218. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2022.2144318.

Abstract concepts: external influences, internal constraints, and methodological issues.

Borghi A, Shaki S, Fischer M Psychol Res. 2022; 86(8):2370-2388.

PMID: 35788903 PMC: 9674746. DOI: 10.1007/s00426-022-01698-4.

Eye Tracking Lateralized Spatial Associations in Early Childhood.

West E, McCrink K J Cogn Dev. 2022; 22(5):678-694.

PMID: 35330699 PMC: 8942349. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2021.1926254.

References

Adachi I . Spontaneous spatial mapping of learned sequence in chimpanzees: evidence for a SNARC-like effect. PLoS One. 2014; 9(3):e90373. PMC: 3958337. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090373. View

Lourenco S, Longo M . General magnitude representation in human infants. Psychol Sci. 2010; 21(6):873-81. PMC: 2930776. DOI: 10.1177/0956797610370158. View

Walsh V . A theory of magnitude: common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity. Trends Cogn Sci. 2003; 7(11):483-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2003.09.002. View

Puranik C, Lonigan C, Kim Y . Contributions of Emergent Literacy Skills to Name Writing, Letter Writing, and Spelling in Preschool Children. Early Child Res Q. 2011; 26(4):465-474. PMC: 3172137. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.03.002. View

Casasanto D, Fotakopoulou O, Boroditsky L . Space and Time in the Child's Mind: Evidence for a Cross-Dimensional Asymmetry. Cogn Sci. 2011; 34(3):387-405. DOI: 10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01094.x. View

Shaki S, Fischer M, Gobel S . Direction counts: a comparative study of spatially directional counting biases in cultures with different reading directions. J Exp Child Psychol. 2012; 112(2):275-81. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.12.005. View

van Dijck J, Fias W . A working memory account for spatial-numerical associations. Cognition. 2011; 119(1):114-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.013. View

Gobel S, Calabria M, Farne A, Rossetti Y . Parietal rTMS distorts the mental number line: simulating 'spatial' neglect in healthy subjects. Neuropsychologia. 2005; 44(6):860-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.09.007. View

Rinaldi L, Di Luca S, Henik A, Girelli L . Reading direction shifts visuospatial attention: an Interactive Account of attentional biases. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2014; 151:98-105. DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.05.018. View

10.

McCrink K, Caldera C, Shaki S . The Early Construction of Spatial Attention: Culture, Space, and Gesture in Parent-Child Interactions. Child Dev. 2017; 89(4):1141-1156. PMC: 5628076. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12781. View

11.

Bachtold D, Baumuller M, Brugger P . Stimulus-response compatibility in representational space. Neuropsychologia. 1998; 36(8):731-5. DOI: 10.1016/s0028-3932(98)00002-5. View

12.

Bottini R, Casasanto D . Space and time in the child's mind: metaphoric or ATOMic?. Front Psychol. 2013; 4:803. PMC: 3817359. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00803. View

13.

Rugani R, Vallortigara G, Priftis K, Regolin L . Animal cognition. Number-space mapping in the newborn chick resembles humans' mental number line. Science. 2015; 347(6221):534-6. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa1379. View

14.

Gobel S, Maier C, Shaki S . Which numbers do you have in mind? Number generation is influenced by reading direction. Cogn Process. 2015; 16 Suppl 1:241-4. DOI: 10.1007/s10339-015-0715-8. View

15.

Bonato M, Zorzi M, Umilta C . When time is space: evidence for a mental time line. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2012; 36(10):2257-73. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.08.007. View

16.

Ouellet M, Santiago J, Israeli Z, Gabay S . Is the future the right time?. Exp Psychol. 2010; 57(4):308-14. DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000036. View

17.

de Hevia M, Girelli L, Addabbo M, Macchi Cassia V . Human infants' preference for left-to-right oriented increasing numerical sequences. PLoS One. 2014; 9(5):e96412. PMC: 4011793. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096412. View

18.

Hoffmann D, Hornung C, Martin R, Schiltz C . Developing number-space associations: SNARC effects using a color discrimination task in 5-year-olds. J Exp Child Psychol. 2013; 116(4):775-91. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.07.013. View

19.

Montag J, Jones M, Smith L . The Words Children Hear: Picture Books and the Statistics for Language Learning. Psychol Sci. 2015; 26(9):1489-96. PMC: 4567506. DOI: 10.1177/0956797615594361. View

20.

Csibra G, Gergely G . Natural pedagogy. Trends Cogn Sci. 2009; 13(4):148-53. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2009.01.005. View