Evidence for the role of inhibition in numerical comparison: A negative priming study in 7- to 8-year-olds and adults.

• 7–8-year-olds and adults show number/size congruency effects during numerical comparison. • Inhibition in numerical estimation is evidenced by NP effects in both age groups. • NP effect decreases with age, reflecting the protracted development of inhibition. • Using negative priming paradigms has potential implications for education. Adapting a numerical comparison task to a negative priming paradigm, we aimed to provide new evidence that inhibitory control processes are involved in numerical comparison. We observed negative priming effects in both 7- to 8-year-olds (n = 47, M age = 7.92 years) and adults (n = 33, M age = 27.86 years), confirming that inhibition of irrelevant dimensions of magnitude is needed in numerical estimation at both ages. In addition, the amplitude of the negative priming effect was larger in children, in line with recent accounts suggesting that numerical development is rooted in part in the improvement of inhibitory control abilities. Our findings have educational implications for the investigation of the predictive values of numerical intuitions and executive functions for math achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]