Refine
Year of publication
- 2018 (3) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (3) (remove)
Language
- English (3)
Has Fulltext
- yes (3) (remove)
Faculty / Organisational entity
We studied the development of cognitive abilities related to intelligence and creativity
(N = 48, 6–10 years old), using a longitudinal design (over one school year), in order
to evaluate an Enrichment Program for gifted primary school children initiated by
the government of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Entdeckertag
Rheinland Pfalz, Germany; ET; Day of Discoverers). A group of German primary school
children (N = 24), identified earlier as intellectually gifted and selected to join the
ET program was compared to a gender-, class- and IQ- matched group of control
children that did not participate in this program. All participants performed the Standard
Progressive Matrices (SPM) test, which measures intelligence in well-defined problem
space; the Creative Reasoning Task (CRT), which measures intelligence in ill-defined
problem space; and the test of creative thinking-drawing production (TCT-DP), which
measures creativity, also in ill-defined problem space. Results revealed that problem
space matters: the ET program is effective only for the improvement of intelligence
operating in well-defined problem space. An effect was found for intelligence as
measured by SPM only, but neither for intelligence operating in ill-defined problem space
(CRT) nor for creativity (TCT-DP). This suggests that, depending on the type of problem
spaces presented, different cognitive abilities are elicited in the same child. Therefore,
enrichment programs for gifted, but also for children attending traditional schools,
should provide opportunities to develop cognitive abilities related to intelligence,
operating in both well- and ill-defined problem spaces, and to creativity in a parallel,
using an interactive approach.
To investigate whether participants can activate only one spatially oriented number line at a time or
multiple number lines simultaneously, they were asked to solve a unit magnitude comparison task
(unit smaller/larger than 5) and a parity judgment task (even/odd) on two-digit numbers. In both these
primary tasks, decades were irrelevant. After some of the primary task trials (randomly), participants
were asked to additionally solve a secondary task based on the previously presented number. In
Experiment 1, they had to decide whether the two-digit number presented for the primary task was
larger or smaller than 50. Thus, for the secondary task decades were relevant. In contrast, in Experiment
2, the secondary task was a color judgment task, which means decades were irrelevant. In Experiment
1, decades’ and units’ magnitudes influenced the spatial association of numbers separately. In contrast,
in Experiment 2, only the units were spatially associated with magnitude. It was concluded that
multiple number lines (one for units and one for decades) can be activated if attention is focused on
multiple, separate magnitude attributes.
The size congruity effect involves interference between numerical magnitude and physical size of visually presented numbers: congruent numbers (either both small or both large in numerical magnitude and physical size) are responded to faster than incongruent ones (small numerical magnitude/large physical size or vice versa). Besides, numerical magnitude is associated with lateralized response codes, leading to the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect: small numerical magnitudes are preferably responded to on the left side and large ones on the right side. Whereas size congruity effects are ascribed to interference between stimulus dimensions in the decision stage, SNARC effects are understood as (in)compatibilities in stimulus-response combinations. Accordingly, size congruity and SNARC effects were previously found to be independent in parity and in physical size judgment tasks. We investigated their dependency in numerical magnitude judgment tasks. We obtained independent size congruity and SNARC effects in these tasks and replicated this observation for the parity judgment task. The results confirm and extend the notion that size congruity and SNARC effects operate in different representational spaces. We discuss possible implications for number representation.