Infants' enumeration of actions: numerical discrimination and its signature limits
Infants' enumeration of actions: numerical discrimination and its signature limits
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00404.x
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发表时间：
2005-03-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Spelke, ES
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wood, JN;Spelke, ES
数字的抽象表示（独立于所枚举的特定类型实体的表示）是人类语言或文化的产物，还是可以追溯到人类婴儿期？为了解决这个问题，四项实验调查了人类婴儿是否根据数字来区分一系列动作（木偶的跳跃）。 6个月时，当控制序列持续时间、跳跃持续时间、跳跃速率、跳跃间隔和持续时间以及运动程度的连续变量并消除节奏时，蚂蚁成功区分四次跳跃序列和八次跳跃序列。相比之下，婴儿无法区分两次和四次跳跃序列，这表明婴儿无法形成少量动作的基数表示。婴儿在 6 个月时也无法区分四次和六次跳跃的序列，并在 9 个月时成功区分，这表明婴儿的数字表示不精确，并且随着年龄的增长，精确度会增加。所有这些发现都与使用视觉空间阵列和听觉序列的研究结果一致，提供了证据表明单一的、抽象的数字表示系统存在并且在婴儿期发挥作用。
Are abstract representations of number - representations that are independent of the particular type of entities that are enumerated - a product of human language or culture, or do they trace back to human infancy? To address this question, four experiments investigated whether human infants discriminate between sequences of actions (jumps of a puppet) on the basis of numerosity. At 6 months, in ants successfully discriminated four- versus eight-jump sequences, when the continuous variables of sequence duration, jump duration, jump rate, jump interval and duration, and extent of motion were controlled, and rhythm was eliminated. In contrast, infants failed to discriminate two- versus four-jump sequences, suggesting that infants fail to form cardinal number representations of small numbers of actions. Infants also failed to discriminate between sequences of four versus six jumps at 6 months, and succeeded at 9 months, suggesting that infants' number representations are imprecise and increase in precision with age. All of these findings agree with those of studies using visual-spatial arrays and auditory sequences, providing evidence that a single, abstract system of number representation is present and,functional in infancy.