Our studies show these abilities are universal, and they develop in the absence of instruction. You don't need to take a class in geometry, and you don't need to learn from a teacher what a right triangle is in order to show this sensitivity.
More Quotes from Elizabeth Spelke:
What's central about numbers for us as adults is that we can apply a number like 7 to a diverse number of things. We can say that there are seven dots but also that a horn honks seven times. Although these are different in their sensory qualities, the numbers are the same.Elizabeth Spelke
Rhesus monkeys as well as human adults and older children living in a remote Amazon village have been given comparison and addition tasks using arrays of dots, and they show the same abilities we find in 5-year-old Boston children.
Elizabeth Spelke
The spontaneous understanding of geometrical concepts and maps by this remote human community provides evidence that core geometrical knowledge is a universal constituent of the human mind.
Elizabeth Spelke
What our study shows is that children have a fundamental understanding of addition and of numbers and we hope to harness that ability to enhance mathematic instruction.
Elizabeth Spelke
You see the same profile of difficulty among the educated Bostonian adults, and the going-to-school Bostonian kids, and the adults and children in the Amazon. The problems that were hard for them were hard for us.
Elizabeth Spelke
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