Abstract
A capacity for nonverbal numerical estimation is widespread among humans and animals. However, it is currently unclear whether numerical percepts are spontaneously extracted from the environment and whether nonverbal perception is influenced by human exposure to formal mathematics. We tested US adults and children, non-human primates, and numerate and innumerate Tsimane’ adults on a quantity task in which they could choose to categorize sets of dots on the basis of number alone, surface area alone or a combination of the two. Despite differences in age, species and education, subjects are universally biased to base their judgments on number as opposed to the alternatives. Numerical biases are uniquely enhanced in humans compared to non-human primates, and correlated with degree of mathematics experience in both the US and Tsimane’ groups. We conclude that humans universally and spontaneously extract numerical information, and that human nonverbal numerical perception is enhanced by symbolic numeracy.
Highlights
A capacity for nonverbal numerical estimation is widespread among humans and animals
Adults living in remote cultures where verbal counting is not routine possess a capacity for numerical estimation that is comparable to adults in industrialized cultures[13,14]
Our results show clear effects of an evolutionary influence on number perception in the widespread number biases observed across different primate species, age groups and human cultures
Summary
A capacity for nonverbal numerical estimation is widespread among humans and animals. We tested US adults and children, non-human primates, and numerate and innumerate Tsimane’ adults on a quantity task in which they could choose to categorize sets of dots on the basis of number alone, surface area alone or a combination of the two. Several studies have shown success on such tasks by a variety of animals including species of primates, rodents and birds[4,5,6,7] In all of those studies, the animals’ sensitivity to differences in numerical value is relatively crude, when compared to the precision and accuracy of human verbal counting. Despite the fact that numerical estimation appears to be a widespread ability, the world offers a much richer array of other quantitative dimensions that animals could access Dimensions such as surface area, duration and density provide valuable quantitative information about which option, given a set of choices, has more. Perceptual systems may only learn to attend to number instead of other quantitative dimensions as a consequence of input from cultural numeracy
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