PURPOSE: Studies have demonstrated an association between the acuity of the approximate number system (ANS) and mathematical performance. A recent novel explanation of this association is the visual form perception hypothesis (Zhou, Wei, Zhang, Cui, & Chen [2015]. Visual perception can account for the relation between ANS acuity and computational fluency. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1364). The current study aimed to replicate the previous findings with a new sample and, more importantly, to investigate whether other visuospatial processing (i.e., visual short-term memory, spatial short-term memory and mental rotation) could also account for the association.
METHODS: 271 children with average ages of 9.9 years were recruited from three primary schools in Beijing, China. They were administered eight tasks to assess visuospatial processing and mathematical fluency as well as processing speed and nonverbal intelligence as cognitive covariates.
RESULTS: Results replicated the previous finding that ANS acuity measured with numerosity comparison test was correlated with mathematical fluency, and the relation was interpreted by visual form perception measured with figure matching test. Moreover, the current investigation found that visual short-term memory rather than the other two visuospatial processing including spatial short-term memory and mental rotation also can explain the association between ANS acuity and mathematical fluency.
CONCLUSIONS: Visual form perception is the shared mechanism of ANS acuity and mathematical fluency. Other visuospatial processing which involved much visual form perception could also account for the association between ANS acuity and mathematical fluency