"Number Sense": As Common as Common Sense?

A simple test administered to children via computer graphic may be a better predictor of his subsequent performance in mathematics than his SAT. The Johns Hopkins University researchers who devised the test believe that most mammals also have an inherent "number sense" that allows them to estimate relative numbers in groups. It is a matter of degree, for humans, as to whose number sense will allow them to excel in mathematics.

Good "number sense" at age 14 correlates with higher scores on standardized math tests throughout a child's life up to that point and weaker "number sense" at 14 predicts lower scores on those standardized tests, said Justin Halberda, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in the university's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

"We discovered that a child's ability to quickly estimate how many things are in a group significantly correlates with that child's performance in school math for every single year, reaching all the way back to when he or she was in kindergarten..."

..."What this seems to mean is that the very basic number sense that we humans share with animals is related to the formal mathematics that we learn in school," Halberda concludes. "The number sense we share with the animals and the formal math we learn in school may interact and inform each other throughout our lives."
_SD

The researchers ad the obligatory PC disclaimer that "nothing in this research suggests that math ability is innate or genetic." As if at this stage in understanding of human biodiversity there is still anyone with an IQ above 100 who still believes in "The Blank Slate" hypothesis.

What is obvious is that it is possible to devise fairly simple tests to distinguish between children with higher and lower aptitudes at various cognitive skills. The fact that these tests have high predictive power for the future of the respective children, is something that should not be ignored, covered up, or euphemised.