Talk by Catherine Thevenot, University of Lausanne.
In the first study I will present, 192 children were observed solving addition problems from the age of 4½ to 7½ across seven testing points. Virtually all children used their fingers at some point during the study, and most non-finger users by age 6½ were in fact former finger users. Importantly, these children showed higher arithmetic performance than both current finger users and genuine non-finger users of the same age. This provides initial empirical evidence that finger counting is associated with later efficient mental arithmetic. In a second study with 65 children aged 6½, tested twice six months apart, we compared patterns of addition solution times before and after internalization and found them to be strikingly similar. Together with the results of a third study involving both children and adults, I will argue that, at least for certain types of addition problems, the transition from novice to expert performance consists of a progressive internalization of counting strategies leading to automatization, possibly supported by embodied processes.
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