Universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception
A capacity for nonverbal numerical estimation is widespread among humans and animals. However, it is currently unclear whether numerical percepts are spontaneously extracted from the environment and whether nonverbal perception is influenced by human exposure to formal mathematics. We tested US adul...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110112 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-1647 |
| _version_ | 1811094848496730112 |
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| author | Ferrigno, Stephen Jara-Ettinger, Julian Piantadosi, Steven T. Cantlon, Jessica F. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Ferrigno, Stephen Jara-Ettinger, Julian Piantadosi, Steven T. Cantlon, Jessica F. |
| author_sort | Ferrigno, Stephen |
| collection | MIT |
| description | A capacity for nonverbal numerical estimation is widespread among humans and animals. However, it is currently unclear whether numerical percepts are spontaneously extracted from the environment and whether nonverbal perception is influenced by human exposure to formal mathematics. We tested US adults and children, non-human primates, and numerate and innumerate Tsimane’ adults on a quantity task in which they could choose to categorize sets of dots on the basis of number alone, surface area alone or a combination of the two. Despite differences in age, species and education, subjects are universally biased to base their judgments on number as opposed to the alternatives. Numerical biases are uniquely enhanced in humans compared to non-human primates, and correlated with degree of mathematics experience in both the US and Tsimane’ groups. We conclude that humans universally and spontaneously extract numerical information, and that human nonverbal numerical perception is enhanced by symbolic numeracy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:06:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/110112 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:06:28Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1101122022-10-02T06:23:15Z Universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception Ferrigno, Stephen Jara-Ettinger, Julian Piantadosi, Steven T. Cantlon, Jessica F. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Jara-Ettinger, Julian A capacity for nonverbal numerical estimation is widespread among humans and animals. However, it is currently unclear whether numerical percepts are spontaneously extracted from the environment and whether nonverbal perception is influenced by human exposure to formal mathematics. We tested US adults and children, non-human primates, and numerate and innumerate Tsimane’ adults on a quantity task in which they could choose to categorize sets of dots on the basis of number alone, surface area alone or a combination of the two. Despite differences in age, species and education, subjects are universally biased to base their judgments on number as opposed to the alternatives. Numerical biases are uniquely enhanced in humans compared to non-human primates, and correlated with degree of mathematics experience in both the US and Tsimane’ groups. We conclude that humans universally and spontaneously extract numerical information, and that human nonverbal numerical perception is enhanced by symbolic numeracy. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (DRL1459625) United States. National Institutes of Health (R01 HD064636) 2017-06-21T14:36:34Z 2017-06-21T14:36:34Z 2017-01 2015-11 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110112 Ferrigno, Stephen; Jara-Ettinger, Julian; Piantadosi, Steven T. and Cantlon, Jessica F. “Universal and Uniquely Human Factors in Spontaneous Number Perception.” Nature Communications 8 (January 2017): 13968 © 2017 The Authors https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-1647 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13968 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Nature Publishing Group Nature |
| spellingShingle | Ferrigno, Stephen Jara-Ettinger, Julian Piantadosi, Steven T. Cantlon, Jessica F. Universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception |
| title | Universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception |
| title_full | Universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception |
| title_fullStr | Universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception |
| title_full_unstemmed | Universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception |
| title_short | Universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception |
| title_sort | universal and uniquely human factors in spontaneous number perception |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110112 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6167-1647 |
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