From the ArcaMax Publishing, Science & Technology Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/technology/s-46176-713720
DURHAM, N.C. (UPI) -- Duke University scientists have found
7-month-old babies have an inherent sense of numerical concepts,
regardless of their mathematical abilities.
Neuroscientists Professor Elizabeth Brannon and graduate student Kerry
Jordan previously demonstrated rhesus monkeys have a natural ability
to match the number of voices they hear to the number of individuals
they expect to see. The researchers expected the same to be true of
human babies, despite studies that failed to demonstrate such ability
in human infants, Scientific American reported Wednesday.
In their own study the Duke researchers found babies spent more time
looking at videos showing the same number of unfamiliar human faces as
those represented in a simultaneous soundtrack of "look" sounds.
"As a result of our experiments, we conclude that the babies are
showing an internal representation of 'two-ness' or 'three-ness' that
is separate from the (sounds and sights) and, thus, reflects an
abstract internal process," they wrote.
The research is detailed in the current issue of the Proceedings of
the National Academies of Science.