The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations
Piazza et al. reported a strong correlation between education and approximate number sense (ANS) acuity in a remote Amazonian population, suggesting that symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical thinking mutually enhance one another over in mathematics instruction. But Piazza et al. ran their task using a...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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M.I.T. Press
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122966 |
| _version_ | 1826212331575574528 |
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| author | Gibson, Edward A Jara-Ettinger, Jose Julian Levy, Roger P Piantadosi, Steven Thomas |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Gibson, Edward A Jara-Ettinger, Jose Julian Levy, Roger P Piantadosi, Steven Thomas |
| author_sort | Gibson, Edward A |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Piazza et al. reported a strong correlation between education and approximate number sense (ANS) acuity in a remote Amazonian population, suggesting that symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical thinking mutually enhance one another over in mathematics instruction. But Piazza et al. ran their task using a computer display, which may have exaggerated the connection between the two tasks, because participants with greater education (and hence better exact numerical abilities) may have been more comfortable with the task. To explore this possibility, we ran an ANS task in a remote population using two presentation methods: (a) a computer interface and (b) physical cards, within participants. If we only analyze the effect of education on ANS as measured by the computer version of the task, we replicate Piazza et al.’s finding. But importantly, the effect of education on the card version of the task is not significant, suggesting that the use of a computer display exaggerates effects. These results highlight the importance of task considerations when working with nonindustrialized cultures, especially those with low education. Furthermore, these results raise doubts about the proposal advanced by Piazza et al. that education enhances the acuity of the approximate number sense. Keywords: number comprehension; cross-culture differences; individual differences |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:19:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/122966 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:19:42Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | M.I.T. Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1229662022-09-29T14:16:14Z The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations Gibson, Edward A Jara-Ettinger, Jose Julian Levy, Roger P Piantadosi, Steven Thomas Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Piazza et al. reported a strong correlation between education and approximate number sense (ANS) acuity in a remote Amazonian population, suggesting that symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical thinking mutually enhance one another over in mathematics instruction. But Piazza et al. ran their task using a computer display, which may have exaggerated the connection between the two tasks, because participants with greater education (and hence better exact numerical abilities) may have been more comfortable with the task. To explore this possibility, we ran an ANS task in a remote population using two presentation methods: (a) a computer interface and (b) physical cards, within participants. If we only analyze the effect of education on ANS as measured by the computer version of the task, we replicate Piazza et al.’s finding. But importantly, the effect of education on the card version of the task is not significant, suggesting that the use of a computer display exaggerates effects. These results highlight the importance of task considerations when working with nonindustrialized cultures, especially those with low education. Furthermore, these results raise doubts about the proposal advanced by Piazza et al. that education enhances the acuity of the approximate number sense. Keywords: number comprehension; cross-culture differences; individual differences National Science Foundation (U.S.) Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering Program (Grant 1022684) 2019-11-18T20:46:10Z 2019-11-18T20:46:10Z 2017-12-17 2017-01-04 2019-04-24T15:45:34Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2470-2986 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122966 Gibson, Edward et al. "The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations." Open Mind: Discoveries in Cognitive Science, 2, 1 (December 2017): 37–46 © 2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology en https://doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a_00016 Open Mind: Discoveries in Cognitive Science Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf M.I.T. Press MIT Press |
| spellingShingle | Gibson, Edward A Jara-Ettinger, Jose Julian Levy, Roger P Piantadosi, Steven Thomas The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations |
| title | The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations |
| title_full | The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations |
| title_fullStr | The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations |
| title_short | The Use of a Computer Display Exaggerates the Connection Between Education and Approximate Number Ability in Remote Populations |
| title_sort | use of a computer display exaggerates the connection between education and approximate number ability in remote populations |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122966 |
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