The experiments of the infants and the monkeys, I think, make it extremely likely that these abilities are inborn.
A lot of children find symbolic arithmetic quite difficult and tedious, yet the children loved our tasks. They were games, the children were very happy to play them, and they were also they were good at them.
When children start learning math in school, they already have a basic understanding of the concepts. This understanding should guide teachers to work on enhancing these skills.
Knowing this, we may be able to enhance math training.
The spontaneous understanding of geometrical concepts and maps by this remote human community provides evidence that core geometrical knowledge is a universal constituent of the human mind.
What our study shows is that children have a fundamental understanding of addition and of numbers and we hope to harness that ability to enhance mathematic instruction.
Rhesus monkeys as well as human adults and older children living in a remote Amazon village have been given comparison and addition tasks using arrays of dots, and they show the same abilities we find in 5-year-old Boston children.
Our studies show these abilities are universal, and they develop in the absence of instruction. You don't need to take a class in geometry, and you don't need to learn from a teacher what a right triangle is in order to show this sensitivity.
I think it's really fascinating that geometry is so difficult. My guess is it's difficult because it focuses on proofs.
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