Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2020-06
Numerical skills and dyscalculia. From basic research to practice in Cuba ( Habilidades numéricas y discalculia. De la investigación básica a la práctica en Cuba )
Establishing bridges between the findings from cognitive neurosciences and teaching practice has not been systematically achieved. However, many researchers interested in this area agree on the positive impact that knowledge on how the brain learns has on teaching practices and educational policies. For more than 15 years, the Laboratory for Educational Neurosciences from the Cuban Centre for Neurosciences has collected evidence on basic numerical capacities and their association with learning mathematics, taking into account different levels of analysis that consider biology, cognition and education. Researchers in this laboratory have developed a conceptual, methodological and instrumental platform based on the experimental evidence they have systematically obtained. This platform has resulted in the design and validation of tools and resources for learning mathematics in the classroom with the intervention of the teachers.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ArsalidouM.TaylorM. (2011). Does 2 + 2 = 4? Meta-analyses of brain areas needed for numbers and calculations. NeuroImage, 54, 2382–2393.
2.
ButterworthB. (1999). The mathematical brain. London: Macmillan.
3.
ButterworthB. (2005). The development of arithmetical abilities. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 3–18.
4.
ButterworthB.ReeveR.ReynolD. E. F.LloydD. (2008). Numerical thought with and without worDE: Evidence from indigenous Australian children. Psychology, 105, 13179–13184.
5.
ButterworthB.Reigosa-CrespoV. (2007). Information processing deficits in dyscalculia. In BerchD.MazzoccoM. (Eds.), Why is math so hard for some children? The nature and origins of mathematical learning difficulties and disabilities (pp. 65–81). Baltimore, MD:Paul H Brookes Publishing Co. 140.
6.
ButterworthB.VarmaS.LaurillardD. (2011). Dyscalculia: From brain to education. Science, 332(6033), 1049–53.
7.
ButterworthB.ZorziM.GirelliL.JonckheereA. (2001). Storage and retrieval of addition facts: The role of number comparison. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54, 1005–1029.
8.
CantlonJ.BrannonE. (2007). Basic math in monkeys and college students. PLoS Biology, 5, e328.
9.
CastroD.Reigosa-CrespoV. (2011). Calibrando la línea numérica mental. Evidencias en el desarrollo típico y atípico. Revista de Neuropsicología, Neuropsiquiatría y Neurociencias, 11, 17–31.
10.
De SmedtB.GilmoreC. (2011). Defective number module or impaired access? Numerical magnitude processing in first graders with mathematical difficulties. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 278–292.
11.
DehaeneS. (1997). La bosse des maths. Paris: Odile Jacob Science.
12.
DehaeneS. (2001). Précis of the number sense. Mind and Language, 16, 16–36.
13.
DehaeneS.MarquesJ. F. (2002). Cognitive neuroscience: Scalar variability in price estimation and the cognitive consequences of switching to the euro. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55, 705–731.
14.
DubinskyJ. M.RoehrigG.VarmaS. (2013). Infusing Neuroscience Into Teacher Professional Development.Educational Researcher, 42, 317–329.
15.
FeigensonL.DehaeneS.SpelkeE. (2004). Core systems of number. Trends in Cognitive Science, 8, 307–314.
16.
GallistelC. R.GelmanR. (2005). Mathematical cognition. In HolyoakK.MorrisonR. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning (pp. 559–588). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
17.
GelmanR.GallistelC. (1978). The child’s understanding of number. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
18.
GelmanR.MeckE. (1983). Preschoolers´ counting: Principles before skill. Cognition, 13, 343–359.
19.
HalberdaJ.MazzoccoM.FeigensonL. (2008). Individual differences in nonverbal number acuity correlate with maths achievement. Nature, 455, 665–668.
20.
HartS.PetrillS.ThompsonL. (2010). A factorial analysis of timed and untimed measures of mathematics and reading abilities in school aged twins. Learning and Individual Differences, 20, 63–69.
21.
Howard-JonesP. A.VarmaS.AnsariD.ButterworthB.De SmedtB.GoswamiU.LaurillardD.ThomasM. S. C. (2016). The principles and practices of educational neuroscience: Comment on Bowers (2016). Psychological Review, 123, 620–627.
22.
IuculanoT.TangJ.HallC.ButterworthB. (2008). Core information processing deficits in developmental dyscalculia and low numeracy. Developmental Science, 11, 669–680
23.
IzardV.DehaeneS. (2007). Calibrating the mental number line. Cognition, 106, 1221–1247.
24.
JordanN.GluttingJ.RamineniC. (2010). The importance of number sense to mathematics achievement in first and third grades. Learning and Individual Differences, 20, 82–88.
25.
Karmiloff-SmithA. (1998). Development itself is the key to understanding developmental disorders. TrenDE in Cognitive Science, 2, 389–398.
26.
KinzlerK.SpelkeE. (2007). Core systems in human cognition. Progress in Brain Research, 164, 257–264.
27.
KovacsF.AbrairaV.SantosS.DíazE.GestosoM.MurielA.ZamoraJ. (2007). A comparison of two short education programs for improving low back pain-related disability in the elderly: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Spine, 32, 1053–1059.
28.
KruegerL. (1984). Perceived numerosity: A comparison of magnitude production, magnitude estimation, and discrimination judgments. Perception and Psychophysics, 35, 536–542.
29.
LemerC.DehaeneS.SpelkeE.CohenL. (2003). Approximate quantities and exact number worDE: Dissociable systems. Neuropsychologia, 41, 1942–1958.
30.
LiptonJ.SpelkeE. (2003). Origins of number sense: Large number discrimination in human infants. Psychological Science, 14, 396–401.
31.
LiptonJ. S.SpelkeE. S. (2005). Preschool children’s mapping of number words to nonsymbolic numerosities. Child Development, 76, 978–988. doi:10.1111/cdev.2005.76.issue-5
32.
MandlerG.SheboB. (1982). Subitizing: An analysis of its component processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 111, 1–22.
33.
MoyerR.LandauerT. (1967). Time required for judgments of numerical inequality. Nature, 215, 1519–1520.
34.
NiederA. (2005). Counting on neurons: The neurobiology of numerical competence. Nature Review in Neuroscience, 6, 177–190.
35.
NiederA.MillerE. K. (2004). A parieto-frontal network for visual numerical information in the monkey. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101, 7457–7462.
36.
OECD. (2010). The high cost of low educational performance. Paris: OECD.
37.
PiazzaM. (2010). Neurocognitive start-up tools for symbolic number representations. Trends in Cognitive Science, 14, 542–551.
38.
PicaP.LemerC.IzardV.DehaeneS. (2004). Exact and approximate arithmetic in an Amazonian indigene group. Science, 306(5695), 499–503.
39.
PickeringS. J.Howard-JonesP. (2007). Educators’ views on the role of neuroscience in education: Findings from a study of UK and international perspectives. Mind, Brain, and Education, (1), 109–113. doi:10.1111/j.1751-228X.2007.00011.x
40.
RavenJ. C.CourtJ.RavenJ. (1992). Standard progressive matrices. Oxford: Oxford Psychologists Press.
41.
Reigosa-CrespoV.GonzalezE.LeónT.TorresR.MosqueraR.Valdes-SosaM. (2013). Numerical capacities as domain-specific predictors beyond the early mathematics learning: A longitudinal study. PlosOne, 8(11), e79711.
42.
Reigosa-CrespoV.Valdés-SosaM.ButterworthB.TorresP.SantosE.SuárezR.HernándezD. (2012). A large-scale prevalence study of dyscalculia based on numerical cognition principles: The Havana City Survey. Developmental Psychology, 48, 123–135.
43.
RousselleL.NoëlM.-P. (2007). Basic numerical skills in children with mathematics learning disabilities: A comparison of symbolic vs. non-symbolic number magnitude processing. Cognition, 102, 361–395.
44.
RubinstenO.HenikA.BergerA.Shahar-ShalevS. (2002). The development of internal representations of magnitude and their association with Arabic numerals. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 81, 74–92.
45.
Santos-FeblesE.Reigosa-CrespoV.García-LiashenkoK.EchemendíaA.PlasenciaE.PujolsG.ÁlvarezA.EimilE. (2015) A System to Support Regional Screening Programs to Identify School-age Children at Risk of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. In D. Jaffray (Ed.), World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, June7–12, 2015, Toronto, Canada. IFMBE Proceedings, 51 (pp. 1469–1473). Cham: Springer.
46.
UNESCO-IBE. (2016). Intentional ICT: Curriculum, education and development, in IBE Working Papers on Curriculum Issues (2016). Geneva: UNESCO.
47.
WhalenJ.GallistelC.GelmanR. (1999). Nonverbal counting in humans: The psychophysics of number representation. Psychological Science, 10, 130–137.
48.
WilsonA.DehaeneS. (2007). Number sense and developmental dyscalculia. In CochD.DawsonG.FischerK. (Eds.), Human behaviour, learning, and the developing brain: Atypical development (pp. 212–238). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
49.
WynnK. (1992). Children’s acquisition of the number worDE and the counting system. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 220–251.
50.
WynnK. (1998). Psychological foundations of number: Numerical competence in human infants. TrenDE in Cognitive Sciences, 2, 296–303.
51.
XuF.SpelkeE. (2000). Large number discrimination in 6-month-old infants. Cognition, 74, 1–11.
