Origins of Numerical Competence: Assessment of Number Sense in Piraha

数字能力的起源：皮拉哈语数感评估

• 批准号: 1022684
• 负责人: Edward Gibson
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-15 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1022684&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Origins; Numerical; Competence; Assessment; Number

This RAPID project focuses on "fundamental" research on three distinct aspects of number sense: (1) a small exact number system; (2) a large approximate number system; and (3) a system for set-based quantification. Recent exploratory research suggests a strong linkage between number sense (particularly large numerical approximation systems) and student abilities in other domains of mathematics. The investigators will research the links among these three aspects, and the study is designed to further the preliminary findings (cited above). The investigators propose a correlational study in which they test a population of the indigenous Piraha people of Brazil (a small, isolated, monolingual hunter-gatherer group from the Amazonas) and a sample of Americans (60 in each group) in a battery of cognitively-oriented tasks which measure different core numerical systems as well as other basic cognitive abilities like short-term memory and face perception (as control tasks). The Piraha are an ideal test case for understanding the relationship among core numerical systems because their language is has no words for numbers. In addition, the Piraha do not use exact number in their society and they do not adopt cultural or linguistic conventions from other cultures. A RAPID is justified because their population is threatened by imminent development. This research is important because a deeper understanding of the conceptual/cognitive components of number sense and how they interrelate can lead to perhaps changed understandings of how students learn and teachers teach this area of mathematics. And, because number sense is so foundational to mathematics and because preliminary research results show its potential importance to future mathematics learning, the project may have a transformative impact on the field.

这个RAPID项目的重点是对数字感的三个不同方面的“基础”研究：（1）小精确数系统;（2）大近似数系统;（3）基于集合的量化系统。最近的探索性研究表明，数感（特别是大型数值逼近系统）和学生在其他数学领域的能力之间存在着密切的联系。调查人员将研究这三个方面之间的联系，这项研究旨在进一步研究（上文引用的）初步结果。研究人员提出了一项相关性研究，在这项研究中，他们测试了巴西土著Piraha人（一个小型的，孤立的，来自亚马逊的单语狩猎采集者群体）和美国人样本（每组60人），这些人接受了一系列以认知为导向的任务，这些任务测量了不同的核心数字系统以及其他基本认知能力，如短期记忆和面部感知（作为控制任务）。皮拉哈人是理解核心数字系统之间关系的理想测试案例，因为他们的语言没有数字单词。此外，皮拉哈人在他们的社会中不使用确切的数字，他们不采用其他文化的文化或语言习俗。快速发展是合理的，因为他们的人口受到迫在眉睫的发展的威胁。这项研究是重要的，因为更深入地了解数字感的概念/认知成分以及它们之间的相互关系可能会改变对学生如何学习和教师如何教授这一数学领域的理解。而且，由于数感是数学的基础，而且初步的研究结果表明它对未来的数学学习具有潜在的重要性，因此该项目可能会对该领域产生变革性的影响。