What's central about numbers for us as adults is that we can apply a number like 7 to a diverse number of things. We can say that there are seven dots but also that a horn honks seven times. Although these are different in their sensory qualities, the numbers are the same.

Elizabeth Spelke

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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.

— Elizabeth Spelke

I think it's really fascinating that geometry is so difficult. My guess is it's difficult because it focuses on proofs.

— Elizabeth Spelke

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The experiments of the infants and the monkeys, I think, make it extremely likely that these abilities are inborn.

— Elizabeth Spelke

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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.

— Elizabeth Spelke

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.

— Elizabeth Spelke

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