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Proto-numerosities and concepts of number: Biologically plausible and culturally mediated top-down mathematical schemas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2008

Rafael E. Núñez
Rafael E. Núñez
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA [email protected]://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/~nunez/web/index.html
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Abstract

Early quantitative skills cannot be directly extended to provide the richness, precision, and sophistication of the concept of natural number. These skills must interact with top-down mathematical schemas, which can be explained by bodily grounded everyday mechanisms for abstraction and imagination (e.g., conceptual metaphor, blending) that are both biologically plausible and culturally shaped (established beyond the child's mind).

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 665 - 666
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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