Comment on "Log or linear? Distinct intuitions of the number scale in Western and Amazonian indigene cultures".
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.
Cantlon
Jessica F
JF
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. jfc2@duke.edu
Cordes
Sara
S
Libertus
Melissa E
ME
Brannon
Elizabeth M
EM
D001938:Brazil; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American; D019545:Intuition; D007802:Language; D055641:Mathematical Concepts