 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Babies 'spot basic maths errors'9 August 2006 Children as young as six months old can understand simple arithmetic and may be able to perform basic mathematical functions, a new study has found. A collaborative report by US and Israeli scientists found that 24 infants aged between six and nine months old were able to comprehend and recognise when a set number of objects had been altered. Basing their work on the 1992 study by Yale University psychologist Karen Wynn, the new research team from Oregon University and Ben-Gurion University used brain-monitoring headsets to assess the brain activity of a group of infants. They were shown a video of either one or two dolls in a puppet theatre. Their view was then blocked briefly and the number of dolls remained the same or one was added or removed. Infants were found to look longer at the screen if the number of dolls differed from their original view - adults given a similar "correct or incorrect" mathematical situation are known to show the same response. The researchers concluded that the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that although infants are not yet able to regulate their behaviour when detecting their own errors, the basic brain circuitry involved in the detection of errors is already functional within six months of birth, much earlier than previously thought. More information
|
|
|
|
|
||||
 |
 |
|||||
| ||||||
 |
|
|
 |
|
|