Walk the number line : An embodied training of numerical concepts

Abstract

Basic numerical representations such as the spatial representation of number magnitude seem to develop during early childhood and predict later arithmetic abilities. Moreover, the concept of embodied cognition suggests that seemingly abstract representations may be based on bodily experiences.An embodied intervention program was developed addressing the spatial representation of number magnitude. First-graders were trained to indicate the position of a given number by walking to the estimated location of that number on a number line on the floor. This training was compared to an identical number line training without task-specific full-bodily experiences.Children showed more pronounced training effects after the embodied training than after the control training. These differential training effects even generalized partially to specific numerical competencies not trained directly. Thereby, these data corroborate beneficial effects of embodied processes for the training of seemingly abstract cognitive representations in general and for the amelioration of basic numerical representations in particular.