Szucs, D. 1 , White, S. 2 & Soltesz, F. 1
1 University of Cambridge, Department of Experimental Psychology, Cambridge, UK
2 Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
We examined the integration of magnitude and spatial information with symbolic number notation in 6, 7 and 8 year-old children. Study 1 used event-related brain potentials to determine the speed of access to magnitude information from Arabic digits in a situation when number meaning was not relevant. All age groups accessed magnitude information with similar speed. This suggests that access to basic magnitude information was mature very early during schooling. Study 2 took a step further and examined not only automatic access to magnitude but also automatic access to spatial information from symbolic digits within the same sample of children. Previous research has separately investigated the development of these components. However, developmental trajectories of symbolic number knowledge cannot be fully understood when considering components in isolation. The numerical Stroop paradigm demonstrated automatic access to magnitude from Year 1. Additionally, a parity judgment task where number meaning was again, irrelevant, showed that the onset of the Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect occurs from 8 years of age (Year 2 of school). These findings uncover the developmental timeline of the integration of magnitude and spatial information during the early learning of Arabic digits in normally developing children.