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The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
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Of language knowledge, apes, and brains.
1Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
|November 8, 2013
Summary
Human language and mathematical abilities stem from the same species-specific cognitive processes. Analyzing their shared structures, particularly in language and arithmetic, offers insights into biological foundations and evolutionary relatedness.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Neurobiology
- Linguistics
- Mathematics
Background:
- Human language and mathematical reasoning are considered complex cognitive functions.
- The biological underpinnings and evolutionary origins of these abilities remain areas of active research.
- Understanding the fundamental nature of language is crucial for comparative studies with animal communication systems.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose that mathematical ability is a specialized manifestation of the same general cognitive capacity underlying language.
- To explore the homologous structures and shared biological foundations between language and mathematical constructs, particularly arithmetic.
- To establish criteria for analyzing language and mathematical systems, aiding in the study of their evolutionary relationships and neurological basis.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of the formal structures of language and arithmetic.
- Identification of irreducible elements (processes or relations) common to both systems.
- Examination of ontogenetic histories to infer simplicity and evolutionary relatedness.
- Application of homeomorphic mapping as a criterion for phylogenetic relatedness.
Main Results:
- Language and mathematical abilities share a common, species-specific cognitive basis.
- Mathematical constructs are a more restricted subset of language constructs, exhibiting homologous relationships.
- The irreducible elements of both language and arithmetic are identified as "relations" or "relating" processes.
- Homeomorphic mapping is proposed as a key criterion for identifying phylogenetically related cognitive abilities.
Conclusions:
- Mathematical ability can be viewed as a specific instance of the broader cognitive faculty that generates language.
- The study of shared structures provides a framework for understanding the biological foundations of cognition.
- This comparative approach sharpens research questions in neurophysiology regarding brain function evolution and modification.
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