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Look Ma, no fingers! Are children numerical solipsists?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2008

Peter Gordon
Peter Gordon
Affiliation:
Biobehavioral Sciences Department, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027pgordon@tc.eduhttp://www.tc.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=pg328
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Abstract

I ask whether it is necessary that principles of number be mentally represented and point to the role of language in determining cultural variation. Some cultures possess extensive counting systems that are finite. I suggest that learning number principles is similar to learning conservation and, as such, might be derived from learning about the empirical properties of objects and other individuals in combinations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 654 - 655
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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