The Representation of Number in Infancy

这项建议的广泛目标是通过研究成人人类数学思维在婴儿期的发展来更深入地了解它。一个主要的目标是检验这一假设，即婴儿依赖于类似于成人、幼儿和非人类动物所使用的数字的模拟量表示。先前的研究表明，婴儿可能依赖两种不同的系统来表示数字：一种是对象文件系统，用于表示小值；另一种是模拟量机制，用于表示大的数值。这一假设将通过研究数字辨别大范围数值的心理物理学来检验，测试婴儿是否对数字之间的顺序关系敏感，并采取第一步确定婴儿使用的枚举过程是涉及串行还是并行处理。拟议的实验将使用婴儿观看各种显示器的时间和婴儿的位置。眼球运动作为依存性指标。本研究的结果将为发展一个连贯的非语言数字表征发展模式奠定坚实的基础，并将有助于首席研究者研究数字认知的演变和发展的长期目标。

The broad goal of this proposal is to gain a deeper understanding of the adult human mathematical mind by studying its development in infancy. A major goal is to test the hypothesis that infants rely on analog magnitude representations of number similar to those used by adults, young children, and non-human animals. Previous studies suggest that infants may rely on two distinct systems for representing number; an object-file system for representing small values and an analog magnitude mechanism for representing large numerical values. This hypothesis will be tested by studying the psychophysics of number discrimination over a wide range of numerical values, testing whether infants are sensitive to ordinal relations between numerosities, and taking the first step to determine whether the enumeration process(es) that infants use involves serial or parallel processing. The proposed experiments will use the time that infants look at various displays and the location of infants. eye movements as dependent measures. The results of the proposed studies should provide a strong foundation for the development of a coherent model of the development of non-verbal numerical representations and will contribute to the principal investigator.s long-term goal of studying both the evolution and the development of numerical cognition.