wow, that is quite amazing. i had read the previous studies with the amazonian children, so this was a slight surprise.

Fascinating. Personally, I know I'm a very visually oriented thinker. If I can't translate a concept into a mental picture I have a hard time thinking about it. I know other people are verbal thinkers. The main consequence for me is I've never been very good at programming even though I can visualize quite well what I want the dang machine to do. That and I ran into a brick wall in mathematics above Calculus.

I have to wonder if this innate ability is related to that in any way.

Dutch

Enter your comment here.

Studies have shown for some time, that primates are capable of managing number related concepts independent of language and symbols. That Aboriginal children can do it simply provides another bit of evidence that primates other than monkeys can do it ... (smile)....

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12849-monkeys-reveal-brain-is-hardwired-for-counting.html

"The small study of two rhesus monkeys reveals that cells in their brains respond selectively to specific number values – regardless of whether the amount is represented by dots on a screen or an Arabic numeral.

For example, a given brain cell in the monkey will respond to the number three, but not the number one. The results suggest that individual cells in human brains might also have a fine-tuned preference for specific numerical values."

I had forgotten those studies. Thanks for reminding us.

Quid pro quo, my friend ... many's the time that the shoe was on the other foot!

I believe there are studies that show other critters have awareness of numbers concepts ... more on a comparison basis: a recognition that three puppies is more than two, for example. This does not mean, however, that they know that two puppies there, and three here, means that there are five puppies. ^^

I think there is also a study of pre-numeric people (aboriginal cultures) where anything over five (or maybe it's seven) becomes "Many," with no real distinction of number after that..

The concept "more than" would indicate that a culture would have an idea of number, even if they did not have a specific method of counting.

It would certainly be evolutionarily useful. As in: Does our side have more warriors than the enemy? Numerical competency would be a survival advantage.

Dutch