Learning basic arithmetic: A comparison between rote and procedural learning based on an artificial sequence.

It is commonly accepted that repeatedly using mental procedures results in a transition to memory retrieval, but the determinant of this process is still unclear. In a 3-week experiment, we compared two different learning situations involving basic additions, one based on counting and the other based on arithmetic fact memorization. Two groups of participants learned to verify additions such as "G + 2 = Q?" built on an artificial sequence (e.

What predicts mathematics achievement? Developmental change in 5- and 7-year-old children.

Many changes occur in general and specific cognitive abilities in children between 5 and 7 years of age, the period coinciding with entrance into formal schooling. The current study focused on the relative contributions of approximate number system (ANS) acuity, mapping precision between numeral symbols and their corresponding magnitude (mapping precision) and working memory (WM) capacity to mathematics achievement in 5- and 7-year-olds. Children's performance was examined in different tasks: nonsymbolic number comparison, number line estimation, working memory, mathematics achievement, and vocabulary.

Children's Approximate Number System in Haptic Modality.

The approximate number system (ANS) is a primitive system used to estimate quantities. It can process quantities in visual and auditory modalities. The aim of the present study was to examine whether ANS can process quantities presented haptically.

Development of children's ability to detect kinship through facial resemblance.

Facial features appear to be a prominent kinship cue for ascribing relatedness among human individuals. Although there is evidence that adults can detect kinship in unrelated and unfamiliar individual's faces, it remains to be seen whether people already possess the ability when they are young. To further understand the development of this skill, we explored children's ability to detect parent-offspring resemblance in unrelated and unfamiliar faces.

Four-day-old human neonates look longer at non-biological motions of a single point-of-light.

Background: Biological motions, that is, the movements of humans and other vertebrates, are characterized by dynamic regularities that reflect the structure and the control schemes of the musculo-skeletal system. Early studies on the development of the visual perception of biological motion showed that infants after three months of age distinguished between biological and non-biological locomotion.

Methodology/principal Findings: Using single point-light motions that varied with respect to the "two-third-power law" of motion generation and perception, we observed that four-day-old human neonates looked longer at non-biological motions than at biological motions when these were simultaneously presented in a standard preferential looking paradigm.