COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF NUMERICAL COGNITION IN CHILDREN AND NON HUMAN PRIMATES

描述(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对刺激集合的数字属性做出反应。3岁的孩子？到5年，黑猩猩、猴子和人类成年人被假设为代表数字，而不是确切的数字。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物品中最大的一组，当这些物品被一个接一个地放入不透明的容器中时，试用时间从10分钟到8小时不等。我们将确定在这些延长持续时间的试验中执行的数字或非数字并发认知任务是否会干扰这些数字判断的表现。我们预测了这一点，但将测试儿童和非人类灵长类动物在这些任务中是否会对数字而不是数量或表面积等维度做出反应。我们将确定被阻止使用正式计数程序的成年人类在估计集合大小时是否表现出与儿童和非人类灵长类动物相当的表现水平。我们预测他们会的。我们将确定黑猩猩和恒河猴在被呈现数字符号时是否能够列举给定数量的反应，以及这种计数过程是否表现出类似于做出数字判断的属性。我们预测，这些物种将通过使用类似于做出数量判断的估计过程来枚举集。这些研究的数据将有助于理解数字估计在这些群体中的作用以及这种估计背后的潜在机制：比较分析将说明数字表征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为儿童在正规算术教学中可能遇到的困难提供洞察

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