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Language and analogy in conceptual change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Dedre Gentner  and
Nina Simms
Dedre Gentner
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. gentner@northwestern.eduhttp://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/gentner/ninasimms@northwestern.edu
Nina Simms
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. gentner@northwestern.eduhttp://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/gentner/ninasimms@northwestern.edu
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Abstract

Carey proposes that the acquisition of the natural numbers relies on the interaction between language and analogical processes: specifically, on an analogical mapping from ordinal linguistic structure to ordinal conceptual structure. We suggest that this analogy in fact requires several steps. Further, we propose that additional analogical processes enter into the acquisition of number.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , June 2011 , pp. 128 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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