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Abstract after all? Abstraction through inhibition in children and adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2009

Olivier Houdé
Affiliation:
University Paris Descartes, Institut Universitaire de France, CI-NAPS, UMR 6232, CNRS and CEA, Sorbonne, 75005 Paris, France. [email protected]://olivier.houde.free.fr/

Abstract

I challenge two points in Cohen Kadosh & Walsh's (CK & W) argument: First, the definition of abstraction is too restricted; second, the distinction between representations and operations is too clear-cut. For example, taking Jean Piaget's “conservation of number task,” I propose that another way to avoid orthodoxy in the field of numerical cognition is to consider inhibition as an alternative idea of abstraction.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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