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You can't avoid numbers in your daily life; they're present in almost every part of being human. Our ability to see, understand, and change numbers is something we use every day, from checking the time when we wake, to cooking our meals, to getting to grips with our growingly complex finances.
Researchers from a variety of disciplines are interested in this deep integration of numbers. They want to figure out the highly intricate and complex processes that make up numerical cognition in the brain.
Scientists have recently learned more about how the brain takes in and processes numbers, thanks to new neuroimaging tools and experimental designs. These studies have found parts of the brain, like the intraparietal sulcus, that are consistently active when doing tasks that involve numbers.
Making choices based on number biases.
The anchoring effect is a surprisingly common bias. This occurs when you place too much emphasis on the first piece of numerical data you encounter. For example, say you're looking to buy a car. You may become more focused on the first number the seller provides, even if that price is substantially higher than the car's true value – you may not objectively value the car outside of this given number. This bias makes it difficult to question the everyday prices we see, leading you to pay more for goods and services.
Understanding everyday biases can also help us make better, more informed choices. Take betting for instance, which literally runs on numbers. Websites like spelpressen.se provide detailed reviews and information about various online casinos. By making yourself aware of how initial incentives or promotions may influence our perceptions, we objectively evaluate the merit and fairness of these offers.
How people understand and respond to numbers is also heavily affected by how they are presented. A medical treatment with a '90% survival rate' is far more likely to be picked than one with a '10% mortality rate,' even though they are mathematically equal.
A 'number sense' in the brain
The Approximate Number System (ANS) is a way that people naturally figure out how big something is. The fact that babies and animals have this 'number sense' suggests that it may actually be an evolutionary advantage.
Studies have shown that babies as young as six months old can reliably tell the difference between sets with a 1:2 number ratio, and babies nine to twelve months old can do the same with 2:3 ratios. By the time they are 4 or 5, children can tell the difference between 3:4 ratios, and adults can tell the difference between ratios as close as 7:8.
Imaging studies of the brain have shown that certain areas, especially the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), are involved in representing numbers. The IPS seems to be able to process quantity information whether it is shown symbolically (for example, as Arabic numbers) or not symbolically (for example, as dot arrays). Although, the exact neuronal encoding processes in the IPS are different for symbolic and non-symbolic numbers.
How language affects numerical understanding
The ANS lets us get a rough idea of quantities, but it seems that languages have very different ways of representing exact amounts above 4. This is clear when looking at societies like the Pirahã and Munduruku of the Amazon, who don't use numbers (or have very few of them).
Similarly, children learn and understand math concepts differently depending on how the numbers are named in their language. Languages with more transparent number naming systems, such as Chinese, have been shown to help children comprehend base-10 structures and place value more effectively than less regular systems, such as English.
In Chinese, the name for 'eleven' is 'ten-one,' and 'twenty-one' is 'two-ten-one,' indicating the underlying base-10 structure. English, on the other hand, has unconnected words like 'eleven' and 'twenty' that can be confusing, making it harder to see the base-10 connections.
Look at your 1's and 0's differently
Our lives are becoming increasingly data-driven, so it is critical to understand the psychological variables that influence our interpretation and use of numerical data. We can use this knowledge to improve our communication and decision-making by incorporating these fascinating insights from psychology, and other domains as well.
So the next time you interact with numbers, take a moment to think about how complicated the human mind is and how mathematics has the power to shape the world around us.