Abstract
While most animals have a sense of number, only humans have developed symbolic systems to describe and organize mathematical knowledge. Some studies suggest that human arithmetical knowledge may be rooted in an ancient mechanism dedicated to perceiving numerosity, but it is not known if formal geometry also relies on basic, non-symbolic mechanisms. Here we show that primary-school children who spontaneously detect and predict geometrical sequences (non-symbolic geometry) perform better in school-based geometry tests indexing formal geometric knowledge. Interestingly, numerosity discrimination thresholds also predicted and explained a specific portion of variance of formal geometrical scores. The relation between these two non-symbolic systems and formal geometry was not explained by age or verbal reasoning skills. Overall, the results are in line with the hypothesis that some human-specific, symbolic systems are rooted in non-symbolic mechanisms.
Highlights
While most animals have a sense of number, only humans have developed symbolic systems to describe and organize mathematical knowledge
In this study we asked whether the spontaneous recognition of geometrical sequential structures, which could reflect geometrical intuition, is correlated with school-based formal geometrical abilities in primary school children
We asked whether this relationship is specific, or whether formal geometry is predicted by numerosity perception, another non-symbolic ability which has been previously shown to be related to arithmetical ability
Summary
While most animals have a sense of number, only humans have developed symbolic systems to describe and organize mathematical knowledge. Numerosity discrimination thresholds predicted and explained a specific portion of variance of formal geometrical scores The relation between these two non-symbolic systems and formal geometry was not explained by age or verbal reasoning skills. One influential theory holds that symbolic arithmetical abilities may be rooted in an ancient non-symbolic system devoted to perceiving numerical q uantities[1,2,3] This system is not human-specific[4], seems to be functional from the first hours of life[5,6,7], even in premature newborns[8], and present in indigenous populations with scarce school experience and restricted language for numbers[9]. Two perpendicular lines form: [mark the right option] two right angles four right angles any four angles
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