{"id":601,"date":"2008-07-22T02:00:24","date_gmt":"2008-07-22T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/?p=601"},"modified":"2023-07-24T13:33:40","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T11:33:40","slug":"the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/olivier-morin\/the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points\/","title":{"rendered":"The debate over maths in the Amazon: still counting points"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Numbers-beyond-words.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15608\" src=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Numbers-beyond-words.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"445\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Numbers-beyond-words.jpeg 445w, https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Numbers-beyond-words-300x225.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 445px) 100vw, 445px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another paper, in Cognition, about the mathematical abilities of Amazonians [1]. This time, the Gibson\/Everett view scored one point. They claim that language for numbers is not what allows us to use concepts of exact quantities for big sets. It merely helps us to keep them in mind.<\/p>\n[from the abstract] number words do not change our underlying representations of number but instead are a cognitive technology for keeping track of the cardinality of large sets across time, space, and changes in modality.<\/p>\n<p>The opposite side is nonplussed about the study. Stanislas Dehaene shared his disbelief with The Telegraph [2]. Elizabeth Spelke talks of possible experimental biases in New Scientist [3].<\/p>\n<hr>\n\n\n[1] Frank, M. C., Everett, D. L., Fedorenko, E., &amp; Gibson, E. (2008). Number as a cognitive technology: Evidence from Pirah\u00e3 language and cognition.&nbsp;<em>Cognition<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>108<\/em>(3), 819-824.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[2] &#8220;Amazon tribe has no words for different numbers&#8221;. <em>The Telegraph<\/em>, 16 July 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[3] <a href=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Numbers-beyond-words.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Numbers beyond words<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another paper, in Cognition, about the mathematical abilities of Amazonians [1]. This time, the Gibson\/Everett view scored one point. They claim that language for numbers is not what allows us to use concepts of exact quantities for big sets. It merely helps us to keep them in mind. [from the abstract] number words do not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":675,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The debate over maths in the Amazon: still counting points - International Cognition and Culture Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/olivier-morin\/the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The debate over maths in the Amazon: still counting points - International Cognition and Culture Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another paper, in Cognition, about the mathematical abilities of Amazonians [1]. This time, the Gibson\/Everett view scored one point. They claim that language for numbers is not what allows us to use concepts of exact quantities for big sets. It merely helps us to keep them in mind. [from the abstract] number words do not [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/olivier-morin\/the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"International Cognition and Culture Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-22T00:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-24T11:33:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Numbers-beyond-words.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Olivier Morin\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/\",\"name\":\"International Cognition and Culture Institute\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/olivier-morin\/the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/Numbers-beyond-words.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/olivier-morin\/the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/olivier-morin\/the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points\/\",\"name\":\"The debate over maths in the Amazon: still counting points - International Cognition and Culture Institute\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/olivier-morin\/the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-07-22T00:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-24T11:33:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/#\/schema\/person\/33c8d638d23d23c559f2b692b3e766db\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/olivier-morin\/the-debate-over-maths-in-the-amazon-still-counting-points\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/#\/schema\/person\/33c8d638d23d23c559f2b692b3e766db\",\"name\":\"Olivier Morin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/oliv-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Olivier Morin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/sitedoliviermorin\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17275,"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions\/17275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}