Does your body count? Embodied influences on the preferred counting direction of preschoolers

Abstract

Many studies confirm that preschoolers from left-to-right reading societies count from left to right, which reflects the cultural direction of their spatial-numerical associations (SNAs). Other factors, not directly related to cultural experience, have not yet been systematically examined as potential determinants of counting direction in preschool children. In this study, we test one such determinant, i.e. whether and how counting direction is related to body-centred reference frames, such as a preferred hand in different spatial-motoric settings. We first asked preschoolers to count spontaneously. Then, we asked them to use a particular hand to count objects presented close to or far away from their bodies. An overall left-to-right counting dominance was replicated, but it was modulated by a counting hand in both tasks: Children preferred to start counting from an object ipsilateral to the hand used. This pattern increased when stimuli were in a position close to the body. We conclude that early counting preferences of preliterate children are embodied. The SNAs which were assessed are not only related to culture but also to situated individual bodily reference frames.

Keywords:

• Counting
• Numbers
• Preschoolers
• Space

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) [grant number CR110/8-1] to Ulrike Cress and Hans-Christoph Nuerk, by Science Campus Tuebingen [Cluster8TP8.4] to Hans-Christoph Nuerk, and by the Teach at Tuebingen (T@T) grant to Katarzyna Patro.

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) [grant number CR110/8-1] to Ulrike Cress and Hans-Christoph Nuerk, by Science Campus Tuebingen [Cluster8TP8.4] to Hans-Christoph Nuerk, and by the Teach at Tuebingen (T@T) grant to Katarzyna Patro.

Notes

¹ We did not receive information about exact age of one participant. This child was nevertheless included into analyses (except for those analyses in which age was a variable).