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Beyond format-specificity: Is analogue magnitude really the core abstract feature of the cultural number representation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2009

Dénes Szűcs ,
Fruzsina Soltész  and
Usha Goswami
Dénes Szűcs
Affiliation:
Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 8PQ, United Kingdom. ds377@cam.ac.ukhttp://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/szucs/fs299@cam.ac.ukucg10@cam.ac.ukhttp://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/goswami/
Fruzsina Soltész
Affiliation:
Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 8PQ, United Kingdom. ds377@cam.ac.ukhttp://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/szucs/fs299@cam.ac.ukucg10@cam.ac.ukhttp://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/goswami/
Usha Goswami
Affiliation:
Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 8PQ, United Kingdom. ds377@cam.ac.ukhttp://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/szucs/fs299@cam.ac.ukucg10@cam.ac.ukhttp://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/goswami/
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Abstract

The issue of abstractness raises two distinct questions. First, is there a format-independent magnitude representation? Second, does analogue magnitude really play a crucial role in the development of human mathematics? We suggest that neither developmental nor cultural studies support this notion. The field needs to redefine the properties of the core number representation as used in human arithmetic.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 3-4 , August 2009 , pp. 352 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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