Friday, February 17, 2006

Baby math

Babies may have abstract numerical sense (via Mirabilis):

Even before babies learn to talk they have a bit of a grasp of math, according to new research concluding that infants may have an abstract sense of numerical concepts.

. . .

"As a result of our experiments, we conclude that the babies are showing an internal representation of 'two-ness' or three-ness' that is separate from sensory modalities and thus reflects an abstract internal process," researcher Elizabeth Brannon wrote.

. . .

Understanding the research could be useful in devising methods for teaching basic math skills to the very young, Brannon said.


It's clear to me that babies already have basic math skills. No? The trick is to teach them to express it in the formalized manner we expect.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My baby definately understands "two-cookiness" as being superior to "one-cookiness", which makes me think they may be on to something...

Anonymous said...

i liked your comments on islamic reform at the sigmund blog. feel free to stop by my place whenever you feel like.

funny that someone named 'isabella' should have such things to say =)

carmilevy said...

If only we spoke their language.