Inquiring Minds
Can Fish Count? What Animals Reveal About Our Uniquely Mathematical Minds
May 17, 2022
Brian Butterworth, a renowned professor of cognitive neuropsychology, discusses the mathematical abilities in other species, including infants' sensitivity to numbers and the relationship between math and the universe. The podcast also explores counting in animals and bioluminescent bacteria, the accumulator theory, counting as a decision-making tool in animal behavior, and the concept of numbers and discount cunies.
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Quick takeaways
- Even infants show sensitivity to the number of objects around them, indicating basic numerical computations from an early age.
- Numerical abilities have a genetic component, but the specific genes involved in mathematical abilities remain unknown.
Deep dives
Early Numerical Abilities in Infants and Children
In the book, Brian Butterworth discusses studies that show even infants in their first week of life are sensitive to the number of objects around them. They notice changes in the number of objects on a screen and show an arithmetic expectation at the age of six months. This suggests that babies and young children are capable of basic numerical computations.
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