PSY-PC 1250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Approximate Number System, Object Permanence, General Idea
Document Summary
Four or ore items numbers present: getting an estimate of how many numbers are present, giving a general idea (just an estimate, not exact and not perfect) Subject to a ratio constraint--the items that are being compared or manipulated must be different enough from each other in order for difference to be detected [**this ratio gets better with age] Initially this ratio is 1 to 2 (6 months of age: by 1 year old, the ratio is 2 to 3, by adulthood, the ratio is 7 to 8. [note that there is individual variability in these ratios] Not immediately obvious how children move from basic understandings of number to a more complex understanding that can support counting and complex mathematical operations (neither of these systems represent any exact larger, discrete amount) Initially for any given problem, you think about that problem being associated with a number of different answers; finger-based strategies initially used to solve these problems.