Calculating without reading? Comments on Cohen and Dehaene (2000)

Abstract

Cohen and Dehaene (Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2000, Vol. 17, pp. 563-583) reported the case of a pure alexic patient who preserved some calculation abilities despite severely impaired Arabic numeral reading. They argued that these residual abilities and the general pattern of performance of the patient can be fully explained within their anatomo-functional triple-code model. Here, we show how the lack of specification of the assumed architecture, the failure to provide sufficiently detailed data, and the absence of adequate refutation of alternative accounts make this study unsuitable for constraining theories of numerical cognition.