Abstract
AbstractWhile general cognitive skills decline during aging, numerical skills seem to be mainly preserved. Such skills are essential for an independent life up to old age, e.g., when dealing with money or time. Operating with numbers usually requires number magnitude and place-value processing. The question is whether these processes are negatively affected by aging due to the general cognitive decline or positively affected due to lifelong experience with numbers. Therefore, we investigated age-related changes in the distance and compatibility effects in single-digit, two-digit, and four-digit number comparison. On the one hand, older adults took longer for number processing and showed a smaller distance effect, indicating altered number magnitude representations. On the other hand, older adults were better in place-value processing as indicated by a smaller compatibility effect than in younger adults. We conclude that aging differentially affects basic numerical skills.
Funder
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference52 articles.
1. Duverne, S. & Lemaire, P. Aging and mental arithmetic. In Handbook of Mathematical Cognition (ed. Campbell, J. I. D.) 397–411 (Psychology Press, 2005).
2. Halberda, J., Ly, R., Wilmer, J. B., Naiman, D. Q. & Germine, L. Number sense across the lifespan as revealed by a massive Internet-based sample. PNAS 109, 11116–11120 (2012).
3. Thevenot, C., Castel, C., Danjon, J., Fanget, M., & Fayol, M. The use of the operand-recognition paradigm for the study of mental addition in older adults. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 68(1), 64–67. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbs040 (2013).
4. Nuerk, H.-C., Moeller, K. & Willmes, K. Multi-digit number processing. In Oxford Handbook of Mathematical Cognition (eds Cohen Kadosh, R. & Dowker, A.) 106–139 (Oxford University Press, 2015).
5. Moyer, R. S. & Landauer, T. K. Time required for judgements of numerical inequality. Nature 215, 1519–1592 (1967).