Influences of cultural artifacts and social practices on number conceptualisation

Abstract

The current investigations coordinate math cognition and cross-cultural approaches to mathematical thinking to examine the linkages between numeric and non-numeric processes, and how these linkages are modified by cultural artifacts such as writing and by socially situated math numeracy practices. Two main studies investigate these issues.

The first study examined whether Arabic right-left writing practices and English left-right practices influence the spatial orientation of the mental number line. Extending Dehaene et al's., line of research, the current investigation examined the influences of the Arabic right-to-left writing system on number conceptualisation in three groups: an Arabic Monoliterate group who read and write from right-to-left, a Adult Arabic-English Biliterate group, an English Monoliterate group. Two additional groups, a Lebanese Illiterate group who could read numbers only and a Child Arabic-English Biliterate group, were investigated to examine how level of language skill affects the mental number line.

The second separate line of research extended studies by Saxe (1991) which found that Brazilian child street sellers, who have little school-based literacy skills, were not skilled at identifying Arabic numerals presented in isolation without a bill context. In the current series of studies, the speeded bill and numeral recognition and conceptualisation processes of two Lebanese Seller groups, a Traditional and Modernising group and two Non-Seller control groups was investigated.