Number Line Is Learned, Not Innate: Study

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120425192742.htm

by llambda • 14 years ago

1 1 14 years ago

This is not a satisfactory experiment, at least from the article, which may be making the wrong conclusion from a study that doesn't make that claim itself.

The problem is that the Yupno could have a divergent mental makeup from other races. Or that early in their formative years Yupno kids replace the intuitive number line with the Yupno number system by way of example. The study's evidence is based on testing adults, and then makes conclusions on whether we're born with the knowledge or learn it young. You can't make that conclusion with that data set.

The premise may well be true, I won't knock it, but the article's claim is flawed. What may well just be a cool anthropology study on a divergent culture is possibly being warped into a sensationalist headline.

Number Line Is Learned, Not Innate: Study

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