Time and number discrimination in a bisection task with a sequence of stimuli: A developmental approach

doi:10.1016/S0022-0965(02)00180-7

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Volume 84, Issue 1, January 2003, Pages 63-76

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-0965(02)00180-7 Get rights and content

Abstract

Children, aged 5 and 8 years, and adults were tested in a bisection task with a sequence of stimuli in which time and number co-varied. In a counting and a non-counting condition, they were instructed either to process the duration of this sequence while ignoring the number of stimuli (temporal bisection), or to process the number of stimuli while ignoring the duration (numerical bisection). In the temporal bisection task, number interfered with the 5-year-olds’ temporal performance, indicating that young children did not process time and number independently in a sequence of stimuli when they had to attend to duration. However, number interference decreased both with age and counting strategy. In contrast, in the numerical bisection task, duration did not interfere with numerical discrimination for any age group.

Section snippets

Participants

The final sample consisted of 97 participants: 29 5-year-olds (15 girls and 14 boys; mean age=5.29 years, SD=0.31), 32 8-year-olds (17 girls and 15 boys; mean age=8.05 years, SD=0.28), and 36 adults (28 women and 8 men; mean age=21.84 years, SD=2.72).

Material

A PowerMacintosh computer controlled the experimental events and recorded the data with PsyScope (Cohen, MacWhinney, Flatt, & Provost, 1993). The responses were made using the buttons of a PsyScope response box. The stimulus used was a blue circle

Participants

The sample consisted of 85 participants: 27 5-year-olds (14 girls and 13 boys; mean age = 5.17 years, SD=0.40), 28 8-year-olds (15 girls and 13 boys; mean age = 8.04 years, SD=0.33), and 31 adults (20 women and 11 men; mean age = 22.63 years, SD=2.31).

Material and procedure

The material and the procedure were the same as in experiment 1, except that the participants were instructed to judge the number of stimuli in the signal sequence and to ignore its total duration. The experimenter presented the “short-few” and

General discussion

The results of our two experiments provided additional findings showing that timing and counting are two basic abilities shared by human subjects at different ages, although temporal and numerical sensitivity increased with age (e.g., Droit-Volet, 2002; Droit-Volet et al., 2001; Droit-Volet and Wearden, 2001, Droit-Volet and Wearden, 2002; Whalen, Gallistel, & Gelman, 1999; Xu & Spelke, 2000). However, they also showed that, in children, numerical sensitivity is greater than temporal

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Time and number discrimination in a bisection task with a sequence of stimuli: A developmental approach

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Material

Participants

Material and procedure

General discussion

Learning and Motivation

Developmental Review

Behavioural Processes

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Behavioural Processes

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Cognitive Development

Human memory: Theory and practice

Attentional resources in timing: Interference effects in concurrent temporal and non-temporal working memory tasks

Perception & Psychophysics

Bisection of temporal intervals

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

The numerical attribute of stimuli

PsyScope: An interactive graphic system for designing and controlling experiments in the psychology laboratory using Macintosh computers

Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers

Attention, automaticity, and levels of representation in number processing

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition

Interference and inhibition in cognition