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Why frequencies are natural

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2007

Brian Butterworth
Brian Butterworth
Affiliation:
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom. b.butterworth@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

Research in mathematical cognition has shown that rates, and other interpretations of x/y, are hard to learn and understand. On the other hand, there is extensive evidence that the brain is endowed with a specialized mechanism for representing and manipulating the numerosities of sets – that is, frequencies. Hence, base-rates are neglected precisely because they are rates, whereas frequencies are indeed natural.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , June 2007 , pp. 259 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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