Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T21:50:39.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Innateness of magnitude perception? Skill can be acquired and mastered at all ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2017

Orly Rubinsten  and
Avi Karni
Orly Rubinsten
Affiliation:
Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, Department of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, [email protected]://langnum.haifa.ac.il/ERubin.php
Avi Karni
Affiliation:
Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, Department of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, [email protected]://langnum.haifa.ac.il/ERubin.php Sagol Department of Neurobiology, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We agree with Leibovich et al.'s argument that the number sense theory should be re-evaluated. However, we argue that highly efficient skills (i.e., fluent and highly accurate, “automatic,” performance) can be acquired and mastered at all ages. Hence, evidence for primacy or fluency in perceiving continuous magnitudes is insufficient for supporting strong conclusions about the innateness of this aptitude.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e186
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

De Boysson-Bardies, B. (1993) Ontogeny of language-specific syllabic productions. In: Developmental neurocognition: Speech and face processing in the first year of life, ed. De Boysson-Bardies, B., de Schonen, S., Jusczyk, P., MacNeilage, P. & Morton, J., pp. 353–63. Kluwer.Google Scholar
Eimas, P. D. (1975) Auditory and phonetic coding of the cues for speech: Discrimination of the [rl] distinction by young infants. Perception & Psychophysics 18(5):341–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eimas, P. D., Siqueland, E. R., Jusczyk, P. & Vigorito, J. (1971) Speech perception in infants. Science 171(3968):303–306.Google Scholar
Girelli, L., Lucangeli, D. & Butterworth, B. (2000) The development of automaticity in accessing number magnitude. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 76:104–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Held, R. & Hein, A. (1963) Movement-produced stimulation in the development of visually guided behavior. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 56(5):872–76.Google Scholar
Jarjoura, W. & Karni, A. (2016) A novel tactile Braille–Stroop test (TBSt). British Journal of Visual Impairment 34(1):72–82.Google Scholar
Karni, A. (1996) The acquisition of perceptual and motor skills: A memory system in the adult human cortex. Cognitive Brain Research 5(1):39–48.Google Scholar
Karni, A. & Bertini, G. (1997) Learning perceptual skills: Behavioral probes into adult cortical plasticity. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 7(4):530–35.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. K. (2010) Brain mechanisms in early language acquisition. Neuron 67(5):713–27.Google Scholar
Lasky, R. E., Syrdal-Lasky, A. & Klein, R. E. (1975) VOT discrimination by four to six and a half month old infants from Spanish environments. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 20(2):215–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logan, G. D. (1997) The automaticity of academic life: Unconscious applications of an implicit theory. In: The automaticity of everyday life: Advances in social cognition, vol. 10, ed. Wyer, R. S. Jr., pp. 157–79. Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
MacLeod, C. M. (1991) Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin 109:163–203.Google Scholar
Poldrack, R. A. & Logan, G. D. (1998) What is the mechanism for fluency in successive recognition? Acta Psychologica 98(2):167–81.Google Scholar
Rubinsten, O., Henik, A., Berger, A. & Shahar-Shalev, S. (2002) The development of internal representations of magnitude and their association with Arabic numerals. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 81:74–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, L. B., Jones, S. S. & Landau, B. (1996) Naming in young children: A dumb attentional mechanism? Cognition 60(2):143–71.Google Scholar
Starr, A. & Brannon, E. M. (2015) Evidence against continuous variables driving numerical discrimination in infancy. Frontiers in Psychology 6:923.Google Scholar
Stroop, J. R. (1935) Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology 18:643–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treisman, A. M. & Gelade, G. (1980) A feature-integration theory of attention. Cognitive Psychology 12(1): 97–136.Google Scholar
Tzelgov, J., Yehene, V., Kotler, L. & Alon, A. (2000) Automatic comparisons of artificial digits never compared: Learning linear ordering relations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 26(1):1–18.Google Scholar
Werker, J. F. & Lalonde, C. E. (1988) Cross-language speech perception: Initial capabilities and developmental change. Developmental Psychology 24(5):672–83.Google Scholar