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Counting and arithmetic principles first

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2008

Rochel Gelman
Affiliation:
Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science and Department of Psychology, Rutgers University at New Brunswick, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8020rgelman@ruccs.rutgers.eduhttp://ruccs.rutgers.edu/faculty/Gelman/

Abstract

The meaning and function of counting are subservient to the arithmetic principles of ordering, addition, and subtraction for positive cardinal values. Beginning language learners can take advantage of their nonverbal knowledge of counting and arithmetic principles to acquire sufficient knowledge of their initial verbal instantiations and move onto a relevant learning path to assimilate input for more advanced, abstract understandings.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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