General Magnitude Representation in Human Infants

Lourenco, Stella F.; Longo, Matthew R.

doi:10.1177/0956797610370158

Cited by 303 publications

(254 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

234

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Third, whereas adults can form translations between any dimensions of magnitude (38), it is not clear whether infants are similarly flexible. Current findings indicate that infants can map three pairs of extensive dimensions-number and space (16,17), time and space (17,22), and number and time (17)-and one pair of intensive dimensions-brightness and loudness (39)-but they may fail to relate dimensions belonging to different categories-loudness and length (22) or number and brightness (40). Finally, it is not clear whether the abilities shown by newborn infants are unique to our species or shared by other animals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…The propensity to represent numerical magnitudes by the lengths of line segments (number lines) is a widespread phenomenon not only across cultures and species but also over human development. Human infants (16,17), children (18,19), educated human adults (18,20), and uneducated adults living in remote cultures (11) map numbers onto corresponding line lengths. Similarly, spatial-temporal mappings show the universal effects of one of these dimensions on the other, both in human adults (14) and in adult monkeys (21).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Representations of space, time, and number in neonates

Hevia

Izard

Coubart

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

268

196

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A rich concept of magnitude-in its numerical, spatial, and temporal forms-is a central foundation of mathematics, science, and technology, but the origins and developmental relations among the abstract concepts of number, space, and time are debated. Are the representations of these dimensions and their links tuned by extensive experience, or are they readily available from birth? Here, we show that, at the beginning of postnatal life, 0-to 3-dold neonates reacted to a simultaneous increase (or decrease) in spatial extent and in duration or numerical quantity, but they did not react when the magnitudes varied in opposite directions. The findings provide evidence that representations of space, time, and number are systematically interrelated at the start of postnatal life, before acquisition of language and cultural metaphors, and before extensive experience with the natural correlations between these dimensions.T he origins of the abstract concepts of space, time, and number are longstanding topics of study, from the dawn of philosophy (1) and experimental psychology (2) to classical developmental psychology (3) and modern cognitive science (4-6). Kant (7) argued that representations of number, space, and time provide "a priori" intuitions and concepts that precede and structure all experience. Modern cognitive science provides methods to test these ideas experimentally. We now know that human newborns, and even inexperienced animals such as newly hatched chicks, are able to discriminate objects on the basis of numerosity a few hours after the start of postnatal experience (8, 9). When human newborns are presented with auditory sequences of syllables and visual arrays of objects, they look longer at the arrays that correspond to the auditory sequences in number than at arrays differing in number by a 1:3 ratio (8, 10). At birth, humans thus possess representations of approximate numerosity that are abstract enough to enable a generalization across stimuli as varied as sequences of syllables and sets of visual objects. Are newborn human infants able to perform further, yet more abstract, generalizations across different types of magnitudes?Humans draw links between the dimensions of space, time and number, as shown by the presence of "number lines" (11, 12) and the use of spatial language to refer to time (13). Human adults link these dimensions automatically. When processing spatial and temporal, or spatial and numerical information simultaneously, representations of time and number are both affected by the spatial dimension (14, 15). The propensity to represent numerical magnitudes by the lengths of line segments (number lines) is a widespread phenomenon not only across cultures and species but also over human development. Human infants (16, 17), children (18, 19), educated human adults (18,20), and uneducated adults living in remote cultures (11) map numbers onto corresponding line lengths. Similarly, spatial-temporal mappings show the universal effects of one of these dimensions on the other, both in human a...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Representations of space, time, and number in neonates

Hevia

Izard

Coubart

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

268

196

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…De Hevia and colleagues also found further evidence for an inherited preference for relating numerosity to space in infants. Eight-month-old infants perceive a correspondence between the increasing or decreasing numerosity of geometrical shapes and an increasing or decreasing sequence of spatial lengths (lines) (de Hevia & Spelke, 2010; see also Lourenco & Longo, 2010, for similar results). By the same age, infants show SNARC-congruent attentional shifts when presented with small and large numerosities (dots).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Development of spatial preferences for counting and picture naming

Knudsen

Fischer

Aschersleben

2014

Psychological Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The direction of object enumeration reflects children's enculturation but previous work on the development of such spatial preferences has been inconsistent. Therefore, we documented directional preferences in finger counting, object counting, and picture naming for children (4 groups from 3 to 6 years, N = 104) and adults (N = 56). We found a right-side preference for finger counting in 3-to 6-year-olds and a left-side preference for counting objects and naming pictures by 6 years of age. Children were consistent in their special preferences when comparing object counting and picture naming, but not in other task pairings. Finally, spatial preferences were not related to cardinality comprehension. These results, together with other recent work, suggest a gradual development of spatial-numerical associations from early non-directional mappings into culturally constrained directional mappings.

show abstract

“…One recent study showed that 9-mo-olds were equally likely to transfer an arbitrary, experimentally learned magnitude-to-texture association from one dimension (e.g., number) to another dimension (size or duration) (59). In addition, 9-mo-olds can readily learn pairs of positively (but not negatively) correlated line lengths and tone durations (60), suggesting that infants at least can represent an abstract "more-than" and "less-than" representation that applies to both dimensions.…”

Section: For Review)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Math, monkeys, and the developing brain

Cantlon

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Thirty thousand years ago, humans kept track of numerical quantities by carving slashes on fragments of bone. It took approximately 25,000 y for the first iconic written numerals to emerge among human cultures (e.g., Sumerian cuneiform). Now, children acquire the meanings of verbal counting words, Arabic numerals, written number words, and the procedures of basic arithmetic operations, such as addition and subtraction, in just 6 y (between ages 2 and 8). What cognitive abilities enabled our ancestors to record tallies in the first place? Additionally, what cognitive abilities allow children to rapidly acquire the formal mathematics knowledge that took our ancestors many millennia to invent? Current research aims to discover the origins and organization of numerical information in humans using clues from child development, the organization of the human brain, and animal cognition.analog magnitude | functional MRI | mathematics education | numerical cognition | numerosity T his review traces the origins of numerical processing from "primitive" quantitative abilities to math intelligence quotient (IQ). "Primitive" quantitative abilities are those that many animals use to estimate the value of an object or event, for instance its distance, length, duration, number, amplitude, saturation, or luminance (among others). The constraints on how human and animal minds process these different quantities are similar (1). For example, all of these quantities show cognitive processing limitations that can be predicted by Weber's law. Weber's law states that quantity discrimination is determined by the objective ratio between their values. This ratio-based psychological and neural signature of quantity processing indicates that many quantities are represented in an analog format, akin to the way in which a machine represents intensities in currents or voltages (1). I discuss the types of constraints that influence quantity discrimination, using "number" as the initial example, and then consider the psychological and neural relationship between "number" and other quantitative dimensions. Similar constraints on processing across different quantities have been interpreted as evidence that they have a common evolutionary and/or developmental origin and a common foundation in the mind and brain (2-11). The resolution of these issues is important for understanding the inherent organization of our most basic conceptual faculties. The issue is also important for understanding how our formal mathematical abilities originated.Primitive quantitative abilities play a role in how modern humans learn culture-specific, formal mathematical concepts (1). Preverbal children and nonhuman animals possess a primitive ability to appreciate quantities, such as the approximate number of objects in a set, without counting them verbally. Instead of counting, children and animals can mentally represent quantities approximately, in an analog format. Studies from our group and others have shown that human adults, children, and nonhuman primates share cogni...

show abstract

General Magnitude Representation in Human Infants

Cited by 303 publications

References 36 publications

Representations of space, time, and number in neonates

Representations of space, time, and number in neonates

Development of spatial preferences for counting and picture naming

Math, monkeys, and the developing brain

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About