Dear All,
We would like to remind you that the following talk by *David Barner *(UC
San Diego), organized as part of the ELTE Cognitive Seminar series will
take place at *17:00 (CET) tomorrow* on Zoom!
Time and date: 17:00 (CET), Tuesday, 26. 04. 2022.
Speaker: David Barner (UC San Diego, Language & Development Lab)
Title: What's innate about integer concepts?
Abstract: In 1978 Gelman and Gallistel proposed a powerful nativist thesis
regarding the ontogenetic origin of integer concepts in human children, and
argued for a series of five distinct "counting principles" which included
one-to-one correspondence, stable order, and the cardinal principle. This
proposal was met with several significant waves of responses from
non-nativist psychologists, who argued that children's early counting
behaviors do not respect the counting principles in various ways.
Currently, the field has achieved a remarkable degree of consensus
regarding the empirical facts of number word learning, but the questions
set out by Gelman and Gallistel remain difficult to answer, and a clear
synthesis is absent. In this talk I lay out these facts and suggest a new
synthesis, according to which the core innate feature of number word
learning is Hume's principle of one-to-one correspondence, somewhat akin to
what Gelman & Gallistel argued. However, I also argue - against their
thesis - that the format by which one-to-one is innately represented -
i.e., some form of parallel enumeration - is not readily translated to the
sequential algorithms of culturally constructed counting algorithms,
explaining why children's early counting behaviors do not immediately
express Hume's Principle. Second, compatible with Gelman & Gallistel, I
argue that an innate (ostensibly linguistic) syntax is responsible for
generating a stable count list that extends beyond the limits of human
sequence learning. But contrary to them I argue that the procedures that
are the output of this syntax precede the conceptual content that it
represents - namely, a numerical successor function that generates an
infinite number of numbers. Learning how to express one-to-one
correspondence via a sequential algorithm, and how to extend this algorithm
via a generative syntactic rule are the two key cultural innovations that
form the basis of counting, and are also the key conceptual hurdles that
children face when learning to count.
Zoom link:
https://ppk-elte-hu.zoom.us/j/99679798942?pwd=eDMvWDF1Y0tkSW5zemVMZ2plRzRrU…
Meeting ID: 996 7979 8942
Passcode: 657058
If you have questions about the event, please contact us via email (
nemecz.zsuzsanna(a)ppk.elte.hu or reka.schvajda(a)ppk.elte.hu).
We look forward to seeing you at the event,
Réka Schvajda
Zsuzsanna Nemecz
organizers
ELTE Department of Cognitive Psychology