title: Quantity recognition among speakers of an anumeric language.
abstract: Recent research has suggested that the Pirahã, an Amazonian tribe with a number-less language, are able to match quantities > 3 if the matching task does not require recall or spatial transposition. This finding contravenes previous work among the Pirahã. In this study, we re-tested the Pirahãs' performance in the crucial one-to-one matching task utilized in the two previous studies on their numerical cognition, as well as in control tasks requiring recall and mental transposition. We also conducted a novel quantity recognition task. Speakers were unable to consistently match quantities > 3, even when no recall or transposition was involved. We provide a plausible motivation for the disparate results previously obtained among the Pirahã. Our findings are consistent with the suggestion that the exact recognition of quantities > 3 requires number terminology.
authors: Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124–2005, USA. caleb@miami.edu
authors: Caleb
authors: C
authors: Everett
authors: Keren
authors: K
authors: Madora
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D021641:Recognition, Psychology