Iconicity in mathematical notation: Commutativity and symmetry

Mathematical notation includes a vast array of signs. Most mathematical signs appear to be symbolic, in the sense that their meaning is arbitrarily related to their visual appearance. We explored the hypothesis that mathematical signs with iconic aspects – those which visually resemble in some way t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of numerical cognition 2020-12, Vol.6 (3), p.378-392
Main Authors: Wege, Theresa Elise, Batchelor, Sophie, Inglis, Matthew, Mistry, Honali, Schlimm, Dirk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
icons
mathematical notation
semantic association
signs
symbols
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Mathematical notation includes a vast array of signs. Most mathematical signs appear to be symbolic, in the sense that their meaning is arbitrarily related to their visual appearance. We explored the hypothesis that mathematical signs with iconic aspects – those which visually resemble in some way the concepts they represent – offer a cognitive advantage over those which are purely symbolic. An early formulation of this hypothesis was made by Christine Ladd in 1883 who suggested that symmetrical signs should be used to convey commutative relations, because they visually resemble the mathematical concept they represent. Two controlled experiments provide the first empirical test of, and evidence for, Ladd’s hypothesis. In Experiment 1 we find that participants are more likely to attribute commutativity to operations denoted by symmetric signs. In Experiment 2 we further show that using symmetric signs as notation for commutative operations can increase mathematical performance.
ISSN:2363-8761
2363-8761
DOI:10.5964/jnc.v6i3.314