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If teachers are to tailor instruction to each child’s individual ability, they need to know to what degree achievement in school mathematics is genetically based or is learned. These investigators measured the innate ability to distinguish relative numbers of objects (the approximate number system [ANS]) of 64 typically developing 14-year-olds in ninth grade. The researchers tested ANS with a computer screen showing arrays of dots in two colors, presented in ratios ranging from 1:2 to 7:8; the participants were asked to identify the color of the more numerous set.
From kindergarten through sixth grade, the children had undergone annual comprehensive batteries of multiple comprehensive intellectual and cognitive tests, including symbolic math…