The causal impact of objective numeracy on judgments: Improving numeracy via symbolic and non-symbolic approximate arithmetic training yields more consistent risk judgments

Park and Brannon (2013, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613482944) found that practicing non-symbolic approximate arithmetic increased performance on an objective numeracy task, specifically symbolic arithmetic. Manipulating would be useful for many researchers, particularly those who wish to investigate causal effects of performance. Objective has been linked in multiple areas, such as judgment-and-decision-making (JDM) competence, but most existing studies are correlational. Here, we expanded upon Park Brannon’s method experimentally manipulate investigated whether numeracy’s link with JDM was causal. Experimental participants drawn from a diverse internet sample trained approximate-arithmetic tasks whereas active control spatial working-memory task. Numeracy training followed 2 × design: quickly estimated the sum OR difference between presented numeric stimuli, using numbers (i.e., Arabic numbers) stimuli dot arrays). We partially replicated findings: The improved objective-numeracy more than training, this improvement evidenced by Scale, not Subsequently, experimental also perceived risks consistently participants, risk-consistency benefit mediated numeracy. These results provide first known evidence consistency risk judgments.