Log or Linear? Distinct Intuitions of the Number Scale in Western and Amazonian Indigene Cultures

by: Stanislas Dehaene, Veronique Izard, Elizabeth Spelke, Pierre Pica

Science, Vol. 320, No. 5880. (30 May 2008), pp. 1217-1220.

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Abstract

The mapping of numbers onto space is fundamental to measurement and to mathematics. Is this mapping a cultural invention or a universal intuition shared by all humans regardless of culture and education? We probed number-space mappings in the Mundurucu, an Amazonian indigene group with a reduced numerical lexicon and little or no formal education. At all ages, the Mundurucu mapped symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers onto a logarithmic scale, whereas Western adults used linear mapping with small or symbolic numbers and logarithmic mapping when numbers were presented nonsymbolically under conditions that discouraged counting. This indicates that the mapping of numbers onto space is a universal intuition and that this initial intuition of number is logarithmic. The concept of a linear number line appears to be a cultural invention that fails to develop in the absence of formal education. 10.1126/science.1156540

@article{citeulike:2847179, abstract = {The mapping of numbers onto space is fundamental to measurement and to mathematics. Is this mapping a cultural invention or a universal intuition shared by all humans regardless of culture and education? We probed number-space mappings in the Mundurucu, an Amazonian indigene group with a reduced numerical lexicon and little or no formal education. At all ages, the Mundurucu mapped symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers onto a logarithmic scale, whereas Western adults used linear mapping with small or symbolic numbers and logarithmic mapping when numbers were presented nonsymbolically under conditions that discouraged counting. This indicates that the mapping of numbers onto space is a universal intuition and that this initial intuition of number is logarithmic. The concept of a linear number line appears to be a cultural invention that fails to develop in the absence of formal education. 10.1126/science.1156540}, author = {Dehaene, Stanislas and Izard, Veronique and Spelke, Elizabeth and Pica, Pierre }, citeulike-article-id = {2847179}, doi = {10.1126/science.1156540}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {education, number\_systems}, month = {May}, number = {5880}, pages = {1217--1220}, posted-at = {2008-06-12 15:07:28}, priority = {2}, title = {Log or Linear? Distinct Intuitions of the Number Scale in Western and Amazonian Indigene Cultures}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1156540}, volume = {320}, year = {2008} }

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TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2847179 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2847179 TI - Log or Linear? Distinct Intuitions of the Number Scale in Western and Amazonian Indigene Cultures JF - Science VL - 320 IS - 5880 SP - 1217 EP - 1220 N2 - The mapping of numbers onto space is fundamental to measurement and to mathematics. Is this mapping a cultural invention or a universal intuition shared by all humans regardless of culture and education? We probed number-space mappings in the Mundurucu, an Amazonian indigene group with a reduced numerical lexicon and little or no formal education. At all ages, the Mundurucu mapped symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers onto a logarithmic scale, whereas Western adults used linear mapping with small or symbolic numbers and logarithmic mapping when numbers were presented nonsymbolically under conditions that discouraged counting. This indicates that the mapping of numbers onto space is a universal intuition and that this initial intuition of number is logarithmic. The concept of a linear number line appears to be a cultural invention that fails to develop in the absence of formal education. 10.1126/science.1156540 KW - education KW - number_systems AU - Dehaene, Stanislas AU - Izard, Veronique AU - Spelke, Elizabeth AU - Pica, Pierre PY - 2008/05/30/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1156540 ER -

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