COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF NUMERICAL COGNITION IN CHILDREN AND NON HUMAN PRIMATES

描述（由申请人提供）：我们建议非人灵长类动物和人类儿童 依赖于相同的基本认知过程来响应刺激集的数字属性。3岁的孩子？到5岁，黑猩猩、猴子和人类成年人被假设为近似地而不是精确地代表数量。我们将确定儿童和非人类灵长类动物是否可靠地选择了多组项目中最大的一组，当这些项目一个接一个地呈现在不透明的容器中，试验持续时间从10分钟到8小时不等。我们将确定在这些延长时间的试验中进行的数字或非数字并发认知任务是否会干扰这些数量判断的表现。我们预测，但将测试是否，儿童和非人类灵长类动物将对这些任务的数字，而不是尺寸，如数量或表面积。我们将确定成年人谁是防止使用正式的计数程序显示性能水平与儿童和非人灵长类动物时，估计集的大小。我们预测他们会。我们将确定是否黑猩猩和恒河猴可以列举出一个给定数量的反应时，提出了一个符号的数量，以及是否这个枚举过程显示出类似的属性，使数量的判断。我们预测，这些物种将枚举集通过使用的估计过程类似于用于作出numerousness判断。这些研究的数据将有助于了解这些群体中数字估计的作用以及这种估计的潜在机制：比较分析将说明数字表示是否反映了这些物种的认知连续性。来自儿童研究的数据将提供对儿童在正规算术教学中可能遇到的困难的深入了解

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose that nonhuman primates and human children rely on the same basic cognitive processes for responding to the numerical properties of stimulus sets. Children aged 3? to 5 years, chimpanzees, monkeys, and human adults are hypothesized to represent numerosity approximately rather than exactly. We will determine whether children and non-human primates reliably select the largest of multiple sets of items when those items are presented one-by-one into opaque containers with trial durations ranging from 10 minutes to 8 hours. We will determine whether numerical or non-numerical concurrent cognitive tasks performed during these extended-duration trials interfere with performance in these numerousness judgments. We predict that, but will test whether, children and nonhuman primates will respond on these tasks to numerosity rather than dimensions such as amount or surface area. We will determine whether adult humans who are prevented from using formal counting procedures show performance levels comparable to those for children and nonhuman primates when estimating set sizes. We predict that they will. We will determine whether chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys can enumerate a given number of responses when presented with a symbol for numerosity and whether this process of enumeration shows similar attributes to that for making numerousness judgments. We predict that these species will enumerate sets through use of an estimation process similar to that used for making numerousness judgments. The data from these studies will be informative in understanding the role of numerical estimation in these groups as well as the potential mechanisms underlying such estimation: The comparative analyses will illustrate whether numerical representation reflects cognitive continuity across these species. The data from studies with children will provide insight into difficulties children may experience with formal arithmetic instruction