Firat Soylu

The impact of finger counting habits on arithmetic in adults and children

Here, we explored the impact of finger counting habits on arithmetic in both adults and children. Two groups of participants were examined, those that begin counting with their left hand (left-starters) and those that begin counting with their right hand (right-starters). For the adults, performance on an addition task in which participants added 2 two-digit numbers was compared. The results revealed that left-starters were slower than right-starters when adding and they had lower forward and backward digit-span scores. The children (aged 5–12) showed similar results on a single-digit timed addition task—right-starters outperformed left-starters. However, the children did not reveal differences in working memory or verbal and non-verbal intelligence as a function of finger counting habit. We argue that the motor act of finger counting influences how number is represented and suggest that left-starters may have a more bilateral representation that accounts for the slower processing.

Anatomically ordered tapping interferes more with one-digit addition than two-digit addition: a dual-task fMRI study

Abstract Fingers are used as canonical representations for numbers across cultures. In previous imaging studies, it was shown that arithmetic processing activates neural resources that are known to participate in finger movements. Additionally, in one dual-task study, it was shown that anatomically ordered finger tapping disrupts addition and subtraction more than multiplication, possibly due to a long-lasting effect of early finger counting experiences on the neural correlates and organization of addition and subtraction processes. How arithmetic task difficulty and tapping complexity affect the concurrent performance is still unclear. If early finger counting experiences have bearing on the neural correlates of arithmetic in adults, then one would expect anatomically and non-anatomically ordered tapping to have different interference effects, given that finger counting is usually anatomically ordered. To unravel these issues, we studied how (1) arithmetic task difficulty and (2) the complexity of the finger tapping sequence (anatomical vs. non-anatomical ordering) affect concurrent performance and use of key neural circuits using a mixed block/event-related dual-task fMRI design with adult participants. The results suggest that complexity of the tapping sequence modulates interference on addition, and that one-digit addition (fact retrieval), compared to two-digit addition (calculation), is more affected from anatomically ordered tapping. The region-of-interest analysis showed higher left angular gyrus BOLD response for one-digit compared to two-digit addition, and in no-tapping conditions than dual tapping conditions. The results support a specific association between addition fact retrieval and anatomically ordered finger movements in adults, possibly due to finger counting strategies that deploy anatomically ordered finger movements early in the development.

Predicting long-term outcomes of educational interventions using the evolutionary causal matrices and Markov chain based on educational neuroscience

We developed a prediction model based on the evolutionary causal matrices (ECM) and the Markov Chain to predict long-term influences of educational interventions on adolescents development. Particularly, we created a computational model predicting longitudinal influences of different types of stories of moral exemplars on adolescents voluntary service participation. We tested whether the developed prediction model can properly predict a long-term longitudinal trend of change in voluntary service participation rate by comparing prediction results and surveyed data. Furthermore, we examined which type of intervention would most effectively promote service engagement and what is the minimum required frequency of intervention to produce a large effect. We discussed the implications of the developed prediction model in educational interventions based on educational neuroscience.

An Embodied Approach to Understanding: Making Sense of the World Through Simulated Bodily Activity

Even though understanding is a very widely used concept, both colloquially and in scholarly work, its definition is nebulous and it is not well-studied as a psychological construct, compared to other psychological constructs like learning and memory. Studying understanding based on third-person (e.g., behavioral, neuroimaging) data alone presents unique challenges. Understanding refers to a first-person experience of making sense of an event or a conceptual domain, and therefore requires incorporation of multiple levels of study, at the first-person (phenomenological), behavioral, and neural levels. Previously, psychological understanding was defined as a form of conscious knowing. Alternatively, biofunctional approach extends to unconscious, implicit, automatic, and intuitive aspects of cognition. Here, to bridge these two approaches an embodied and evolutionary perspective is provided to situate biofunctional understanding in theories of embodiment, and to discuss how simulation theories of cognition, which regard simulation of sensorimotor and affective states as a central tenet of cognition, can bridge the gap between biofunctional and psychological understanding.

The Differential Relationship Between Finger Gnosis, and Addition and Subtraction: An fMRI Study

The impact of fingers on numerical cognition has received a great deal of attention recently. One sub-set of these studies focus on the relation between finger gnosis (also called finger sense or finger gnosia), the ability to identify and individuate fingers, and mathematical development. Studies in this subdomain have reported mixed findings so far. While some studies reported that finger gnosis correlates with or predicts mathematics abilities in younger children, others failed to replicate these results. The current study explores the relationship between finger gnosis and two arithmetic operations—addition and subtraction. Twenty-four second to third graders participated in this fMRI study. Finger sense scores were negatively correlated with brain activation measured during both addition and subtraction. Three clusters, in the left fusiform, and left and right precuneus were found to negatively correlate with finger gnosis both during addition and subtraction. Activation in a cluster in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) was found to negatively correlate with finger gnosis only for addition, even though this cluster was active both during addition and subtraction. These results suggest that the arithmetic fact retrieval may be linked to finger gnosis at the neural level, both for addition and subtraction, even when behavioral correlations are not observed. However, the nature of this link may be different for addition compared to subtraction, given that left IPL activation correlated with finger gnosis only for addition. Together the results reported appear to support the hypothesis that fingers provide a scaffold for arithmetic competency for both arithmetic operations.

An Embodied Approach for Engaged Interaction in Ubiquitous Computing

A particular vision of ubiquitous computing is offered to contribute to the burgeoning, dominant interaction paradigm in human-computer interaction (HCI). An engaged vision of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) can take advantage of natural human abilities and tendencies for interaction. The HCI literature is reviewed to provide a brief overview of promising interaction styles and paradigms in order to situate them within ubiquitous computing. Embodied interaction is introduced as a key theoretical framework for moving UbiComp forward as an engaged interaction paradigm.

Simulating outcomes of interventions using a multipurpose simulation program based on the evolutionary causal matrices and Markov chain

Predicting long-term outcomes of interventions is necessary for educational and social policy-making processes that might widely influence our society for the long term. However, performing such predictions based on data from large-scale experiments might be challenging due to the lack of time and resources. In order to address this issue, computer simulations based on evolutionary causal matrices and Markov chain can be used to predict long-term outcomes with relatively small-scale laboratory data. In this paper, we introduce Python classes implementing a computer simulation model and presented some pilot implementations demonstrating how the model can be utilized for predicting outcomes of diverse interventions. We also introduce the class-structuredsimulation module both with real experimental data and with hypothetical data formulated based on social psychological theories. Classes developed and tested in the present study provide researchers and practitioners with a feasible and practical method to simulate intervention outcomes prospectively.

You Can Count on Your Fingers: The Role of Fingers in Early Mathematical Development

Even though mathematics is considered one of the most abstract domains of human cognition, recent work on embodiment of mathematics has shown that we make sense of mathematical concepts by using insights and skills acquired through bodily activity. Fingers play a significant role in many of these bodily interactions. Finger-based interactions provide the preliminary access to foundational mathematical constructs, such as one-to-one correspondence and whole-part relations in early development. In addition, children across cultures use their fingers to count and do simple arithmetic. There is also some evidence for an association between children’s ability to individuate fingers (finger gnosis) and mathematics ability. Paralleling these behavioral findings, there is accumulating evidence for overlapping neural correlates and functional associations between fingers and number processing. In this paper, we synthesize mathematics education and neurocognitive research on the relevance of fingers for early mathematics development. We delve into issues such as how the early multimodal (tactile, motor, visuospatial) experiences with fingers might be the gateway for later numerical skills, how finger gnosis, finger counting habits, and numerical abilities are associated at the behavioral and neural levels, and implications for mathematics education. We argue that, taken together, the two bodies of research can better inform how different finger skills support the development of numerical competencies, and we provide a road map for future interdisciplinary research that can yield to development of diagnostic tools and interventions for preschool and primary grade classrooms.