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The innate schema of natural numbers does not explain historical, cultural, and developmental differences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2008

Marie-Pascale Noël ,
Jacques Grégoire ,
Gaëlle Meert  and
Xavier Seron
Marie-Pascale Noël
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Catholic University of Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgiummarie-pascale.noel@uclouvain.beJacques.gregoire@uclouvain.begaelle.meert@uclouvain.beXavier.seron@uclouvain.be
Jacques Grégoire
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Catholic University of Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgiummarie-pascale.noel@uclouvain.beJacques.gregoire@uclouvain.begaelle.meert@uclouvain.beXavier.seron@uclouvain.be
Gaëlle Meert
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Catholic University of Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgiummarie-pascale.noel@uclouvain.beJacques.gregoire@uclouvain.begaelle.meert@uclouvain.beXavier.seron@uclouvain.be
Xavier Seron
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Catholic University of Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgiummarie-pascale.noel@uclouvain.beJacques.gregoire@uclouvain.begaelle.meert@uclouvain.beXavier.seron@uclouvain.be
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Abstract

Rips et al.'s proposition cannot account for the facts that (1) a historical look at the word number systems suggests that the concept of natural numbers has been progressively elaborated; (2) people from cultures without an elaborate counting system do not master the concept of natural numbers; (3) children take time to master natural numbers; and (4) the competing advantage of the postulated math schema in the natural selection process is not obvious.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 664 - 665
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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