Comment on "Log or linear? Distinct intuitions of the number scale in Western and Amazonian indigene cultures"

Science. 2009 Jan 2;323(5910):38; author reply 38. doi: 10.1126/science.1164773.

Abstract

Dehaene et al. (Reports, 30 May 2008, p. 1217) argued that native speakers of Mundurucu, a language without a linguistic numerical system, inherently represent numerical values as a logarithmically spaced spatial continuum. However, their data do not rule out the alternative conclusion that Mundurucu speakers encode numbers linearly with scalar variability and psychologically construct space-number mappings by analogy.

Publication types

  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Brazil
  • Humans
  • Indians, South American*
  • Intuition*
  • Language*
  • Mathematical Concepts*