Is integer arithmetic fundamental to mental processing?: the mind's secret arithmetic.

Autor: Snyder AW; Centre for the Mind, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. a.snyder@anu.edu.au, Mitchell DJ
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Proceedings. Biological sciences [Proc Biol Sci] 1999 Mar 22; Vol. 266 (1419), pp. 587-92.
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1999.0676
Abstrakt: Unlike the ability to acquire our native language, we struggle to learn multiplication and division. It may then come as a surprise that the mental machinery for performing lightning-fast integer arithmetic calculations could be within us all even though it cannot be readily accessed, nor do we have any idea of its primary function. We are led to this provocative hypothesis by analysing the extraordinary skills of autistic savants. In our view such individuals have privileged access to lower levels of information not normally available through introspection.
Databáze: MEDLINE