根据9月8日发表在英国《自然》(Nature)杂志的研究结果,人类天生便具有数字直觉,这种直觉因人有很大差异,且与高等数学能力息息相关。
在针对美国青少年进行的实验里,科学家发现,“略估数字系统”愈发达的人,从小的数学成绩就很不错。
报告指出,这种未经训练、眨眼间就能大略估算数量的能力,在猴子、老鼠和四个月大的婴儿身上都看得到,演化根源极深。
研究召集人、美国约翰霍普金斯大学认知科学家哈贝达指出:“举凡觅食、在公交车上找位子,或从某种鸟类的叫声次数分辨是求偶还是警示,这些都和‘约略数字系统’有关。”(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原始出处:
Nature,doi:10.1038/nature07246,Justin Halberda,Lisa Feigenson
Individual differences in non-verbal number acuity correlate with maths achievement
Justin Halberda1, Michèle M. M. Mazzocco1,2 & Lisa Feigenson1
Johns Hopkins University, Ames Hall, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
Kennedy Krieger Institute, 3825 Greenspring Avenue, Painter Building, Top Floor, Baltimore, Maryland 21211, USA
Human mathematical competence emerges from two representational systems. Competence in some domains of mathematics, such as calculus, relies on symbolic representations that are unique to humans who have undergone explicit teaching1, 2. More basic numerical intuitions are supported by an evolutionarily ancient approximate number system that is shared by adults3, 4, 5, 6, infants7 and non-human animals8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13—these groups can all represent the approximate number of items in visual or auditory arrays without verbally counting, and use this capacity to guide everyday behaviour such as foraging. Despite the widespread nature of the approximate number system both across species and across development, it is not known whether some individuals have a more precise non-verbal 'number sense' than others. Furthermore, the extent to which this system interfaces with the formal, symbolic maths abilities that humans acquire by explicit instruction remains unknown. Here we show that there are large individual differences in the non-verbal approximation abilities of 14-year-old children, and that these individual differences in the present correlate with children's past scores on standardized maths achievement tests, extending all the way back to kindergarten. Moreover, this correlation remains significant when controlling for individual differences in other cognitive and performance factors. Our results show that individual differences in achievement in school mathematics are related to individual differences in the acuity of an evolutionarily ancient, unlearned approximate number sense. Further research will determine whether early differences in number sense acuity affect later maths learning, whether maths education enhances number sense acuity, and the extent to which tertiary factors can affect both.