Geometry Called Inherent Skill
Noam Chomsky, meet Pythagoras.
Scientists studying whether certain skills come naturally to the human brain have long been intrigued by humans' innate capacity for language. Last week, scientists extended this notion further -- to geometry.
The conceptual principles of geometry are inherent to the brain, according to their study. They found that children belonging to an Amazonian indigenous group called the Munduruku, who had little exposure to schools and mathematics, were just as competent at solving geometric puzzles as American children.
The Munduruku youngsters proved to be intuitively skilled in concepts such as topology, Euclidean geometry and basic geometrical figures, such as lines, parallels and right angles. However, Munduruku adults were outperformed on similar tests by American adults, a difference that the predominantly French researchers attributed to the advantage of education.
"Geometrical knowledge arises in humans independently of instruction, experience with maps or measurement devices, or mastery of a sophisticated geometrical language," the researchers wrote in a paper published in Friday's issue of Science. Beneath the "fringe of cultural variability" provided by education, they concluded, "core geometric knowledge, like basic arithmetic, is a universal constituent of the human mind."
-- Shankar Vedantam
- Re: Geometry Called Inherent Skillposted on 01/23/2006
The Geometry one is quite interesting...
Sometimes I feel man is better in Geometry than woman.
Munduruku youngsters' math could be much better than the avarage
American youth.
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