Commentary: A pointer about grasping numbers

Frontiers in Psychology

Martin H. Fischer¹ 

关键词: numerical cognition;    embodied cognition;    gestures;    numeracy training;    mathematical cognition;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00227

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Mathematical skills are a key predictor of individual as well as economic success (Butterworth et al., 2011). Appropriate early training is therefore desirable, and recently, portable educational computer games for children have started to contribute to feeding this demand (e.g., Couse and Chen, 2010). The effectiveness of most such mobile training applications has not been properly evaluated. One key question is whether the limited manual interactions afforded by tablets and smartphones impoverish learning. From an embodied cognition perspective (e.g., Barsalou, 2008; Kontra et al., 2012; see also Montessori, 1948; Hebb, 1949) rich and varied sensory–motor activity supports learning while merely gesturing or swiping at everything prevents it (e.g., Spitzer, 2013; Tan et al., 2013). In sharp contrast, Novack et al. (2014) recently claimed that mere gesturing supersedes the value of physical object manipulation for mathematical learning.

【 授权许可】

CC BY