Review and Prospect of Research on the Ability to Estimate the Number of Primary School Children

The ability to estimate quantities is the core foundation of children's mathematical cognitive development, which essentially involves the psychological transformation of non symbolic information into numerical symbols through spatial mapping and proportional reasoning. Research has shown that children's development follows a cross-cultural universal path from logarithmic compression to linear representation. Chinese children excel in symbol estimation and strategy transfer due to their visual advantage in Chinese characters and numbers and early systematic training. The analysis of influencing factors shows that the characteristics of symbol systems, spatial skills, language abilities, and task design affect the ability to estimate quantities through interactive effects. The current research has limitations such as insufficient analysis of dynamic development mechanisms, unclear neural basis of digital representation, and lack of personalized educational interventions. In the future, a multidisciplinary integration framework needs to be constructed, and cross-cultural research needs to reveal the mechanism by which language structure shapes quantitative representations. This article proposes a collaborative research paradigm of "neural behavior education culture" to promote the transformation of mathematics education towards precision and provide a scientific path for the development of children's mathematical literacy in the digital age.