Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34907875›Full record

ArticleThe Behavioral and brain sciences2021

The perception of quantity ain't number: Missing the primacy of symbolic reference.

Rafael E Núñez, Francesco d'Errico, Russell D Gray, Andrea Bender

Abstract readComment
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in The Behavioral and brain sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Rafael E NúñezDepartment of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA92093-0515, USA. rnunez@ucsd.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-5063-2952
Francesco d'ErricoCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5199 De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Bâtiment B2, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615Pessac, France. francesco.derrico@u-bordeaux.fr.
Russell D GrayDepartment of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103Leipzig, Germany. gray@shh.mpg.de.
Andrea BenderDepartment of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, N-5020Bergen, Norway. andrea.bender@uib.no.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Clarke and Beck's defense of the theoretical construct "approximate number system" (ANS) is flawed in serious ways - from biological misconceptions to mathematical naïveté. The authors misunderstand behavioral/psychological technical concepts, such as numerosity and quantical cognition, which they disdain as "exotic." Additionally, their characterization of rational numbers is blind to the essential role of symbolic reference in the emergence of number.

Indexed as

CognitionLanguageHumansMathematicsPerception

Identifiers

PMID34907875

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.