Urvi Maheshwari ツ
@urvi.bsky.social
Psych PhD student studying conceptual change at UCSD 🌎 📚
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Urvi Maheshwari ツ
@urvi.bsky.social
· Oct 26
Exact numerical reasoning in blind children and adults
What is the origin of exact numerical reasoning in humans? Previous studies report that innumerate humans are unable to recognize that two sets placed…
www.sciencedirect.com
Just in: @drbarner.bsky.social & I find that blind adults and children who have symbols for large numbers, and use 1:1 correspondence to count, do not extend a similar 1:1 strategy to a set-matching task, which assesses their knowledge of Hume’s principle. A 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Urvi Maheshwari ツ
Happy to share this new entry on numerical cognition for the OECS. Thanks to @hbaum.bsky.social and @mcxfrank.bsky.social for making this happen! Apologies if your work isn’t cited! Had to limit cites!!! oecs.mit.edu/pub/rek9756r...
Numerical Cognition
oecs.mit.edu
November 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Happy to share this new entry on numerical cognition for the OECS. Thanks to @hbaum.bsky.social and @mcxfrank.bsky.social for making this happen! Apologies if your work isn’t cited! Had to limit cites!!! oecs.mit.edu/pub/rek9756r...
We’ve argued that there may be an overemphasis on comparing acoustic and structural similarities between language and music. But lots can be gained from studying the constraints on learning in both music and language, and understanding how both modalities are maintained by domain-general mechanisms.
November 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
We’ve argued that there may be an overemphasis on comparing acoustic and structural similarities between language and music. But lots can be gained from studying the constraints on learning in both music and language, and understanding how both modalities are maintained by domain-general mechanisms.
Stephen Van Hedger & I have a short piece on language and music interactions in the brain, in this cool new book by Edna Andrews and Swathi Kiran (appearing alongside some fab perspectives on language processing in the brain!)
📖 Newly Published: Last month marked the release of The Cambridge Handbook of Language and Brain, co-edited by CBR’s Founding Director, Dr. Swathi Kiran, alongside Dr. Edna Andrews from Duke University.
www.bu.edu/cbr/2025/...
www.bu.edu/cbr/2025/...
November 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Stephen Van Hedger & I have a short piece on language and music interactions in the brain, in this cool new book by Edna Andrews and Swathi Kiran (appearing alongside some fab perspectives on language processing in the brain!)
Reposted by Urvi Maheshwari ツ
A quick (1000 words) read to enjoy with your morning coffee or afternoon tea:
"Psychology wants to stay WEIRD, not go WILD"
Why hasn't psychology diversified it samples, methods, theories, etc.? Because it doesn't want to. osf.io/preprints/ps...
"Psychology wants to stay WEIRD, not go WILD"
Why hasn't psychology diversified it samples, methods, theories, etc.? Because it doesn't want to. osf.io/preprints/ps...
November 13, 2025 at 2:59 PM
A quick (1000 words) read to enjoy with your morning coffee or afternoon tea:
"Psychology wants to stay WEIRD, not go WILD"
Why hasn't psychology diversified it samples, methods, theories, etc.? Because it doesn't want to. osf.io/preprints/ps...
"Psychology wants to stay WEIRD, not go WILD"
Why hasn't psychology diversified it samples, methods, theories, etc.? Because it doesn't want to. osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Urvi Maheshwari ツ
Shopping for a hot take on nativism? Here's an argument that "strong nativist" accounts of concepts (here, numerical concepts) often fail to explain ontogenesis because they lack an account of "rational causation" - i.e., how innate contents are brought to bear in experience osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
November 13, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Shopping for a hot take on nativism? Here's an argument that "strong nativist" accounts of concepts (here, numerical concepts) often fail to explain ontogenesis because they lack an account of "rational causation" - i.e., how innate contents are brought to bear in experience osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Urvi Maheshwari ツ
It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice.
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
November 6, 2025 at 2:55 PM
It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice.
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Ah, thank you! I’m excited for this to be out in the world!
October 26, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Ah, thank you! I’m excited for this to be out in the world!
Reposted by Urvi Maheshwari ツ
Super fun paper on the role of sensorI-motor procedures in 1-to-1 set matching in blind children and adults, with the effulgent @urvi.bsky.social . Procedures that blind kids use for counting 1-1 don’t help set matching 1-1 unlike in sighted kids!
Just in: @drbarner.bsky.social & I find that blind adults and children who have symbols for large numbers, and use 1:1 correspondence to count, do not extend a similar 1:1 strategy to a set-matching task, which assesses their knowledge of Hume’s principle. A 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exact numerical reasoning in blind children and adults
What is the origin of exact numerical reasoning in humans? Previous studies report that innumerate humans are unable to recognize that two sets placed…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 26, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Super fun paper on the role of sensorI-motor procedures in 1-to-1 set matching in blind children and adults, with the effulgent @urvi.bsky.social . Procedures that blind kids use for counting 1-1 don’t help set matching 1-1 unlike in sighted kids!
There’s lots more to say here, but I’ll stop where our paper does: learning haptic 1:1 procedures for counting may not transfer as easily to the problem of set-matching as it does visually, but it’s clear that procedural knowledge is important for expressing an understanding of Hume's principle.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
There’s lots more to say here, but I’ll stop where our paper does: learning haptic 1:1 procedures for counting may not transfer as easily to the problem of set-matching as it does visually, but it’s clear that procedural knowledge is important for expressing an understanding of Hume's principle.
Also, if kids didn’t use 1:1 correspondence when blindfolded first, they were less likely to do so when tested w/ visual access second. Together, these results suggest that challenges to implementing 1:1 correspondence were not conceptual, but a problem of executing an effective procedure.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Also, if kids didn’t use 1:1 correspondence when blindfolded first, they were less likely to do so when tested w/ visual access second. Together, these results suggest that challenges to implementing 1:1 correspondence were not conceptual, but a problem of executing an effective procedure.
So, in Study 2, we only tested the kids who had some visual sensitivity. We tested them twice: once w/ visual access (as usual) and once blindfolded, counterbalanced. We found two things: kids’ performance dropped when blindfolded, resembling those who completely lacked visual inputs.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
So, in Study 2, we only tested the kids who had some visual sensitivity. We tested them twice: once w/ visual access (as usual) and once blindfolded, counterbalanced. We found two things: kids’ performance dropped when blindfolded, resembling those who completely lacked visual inputs.
Even more surprisingly - blind individuals who had some small gradient of visual sensitivity (e.g., a little peripheral vision) successfully matched large sets like numerate, sighted adults. But those who didn’t have any visual sensitivity did not. Further scaffolding didn’t help the latter group.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Even more surprisingly - blind individuals who had some small gradient of visual sensitivity (e.g., a little peripheral vision) successfully matched large sets like numerate, sighted adults. But those who didn’t have any visual sensitivity did not. Further scaffolding didn’t help the latter group.
This isn’t what we found though. Instead, blind adults and kids who had a verbal counting system AND used 1:1 correspondence to count & construct sets didn’t extend this procedure to set-matching, instead opting for alternate strategies (e.g., approximation, matching continuous extent).
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
This isn’t what we found though. Instead, blind adults and kids who had a verbal counting system AND used 1:1 correspondence to count & construct sets didn’t extend this procedure to set-matching, instead opting for alternate strategies (e.g., approximation, matching continuous extent).
But for blind people, an approximation strategy should be just as laborious as using 1:1 strategy since it can’t be done in “a glance”. We thought that this might even lead to an advantage for blind kids who may be more likely to use 1:1 correspondence w/o access to quicker alternatives.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
But for blind people, an approximation strategy should be just as laborious as using 1:1 strategy since it can’t be done in “a glance”. We thought that this might even lead to an advantage for blind kids who may be more likely to use 1:1 correspondence w/o access to quicker alternatives.
With this in mind, we tested blind adults and kids, reasoning that if sighted kids learn to set-match from an analogy to counting, then we might expect that blind individuals who have learned a haptic counting procedure to also analogically extend this procedure to haptic set-matching.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
With this in mind, we tested blind adults and kids, reasoning that if sighted kids learn to set-match from an analogy to counting, then we might expect that blind individuals who have learned a haptic counting procedure to also analogically extend this procedure to haptic set-matching.
One reason for “failures” on the task could be that alternate strategies can be implemented more quickly than 1:1. People may be more inclined to approximate sets or match line extent because it can be done in a single shot. But 1:1 correspondence requires attending to each object in a set.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
One reason for “failures” on the task could be that alternate strategies can be implemented more quickly than 1:1. People may be more inclined to approximate sets or match line extent because it can be done in a single shot. But 1:1 correspondence requires attending to each object in a set.
Still with me? Now i’m finally talking about our study! Here, we ran with Schneider et al.’s idea, exploring why this procedural understanding may be hard to arrive at.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Still with me? Now i’m finally talking about our study! Here, we ran with Schneider et al.’s idea, exploring why this procedural understanding may be hard to arrive at.
Schneider et al. suggested that children who had learned to count might have a concept of exact number, but that matching large sets required some procedural knowledge, which might come from experience with counting sets (which features a similar 1:1 relation between objects and number words).
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Schneider et al. suggested that children who had learned to count might have a concept of exact number, but that matching large sets required some procedural knowledge, which might come from experience with counting sets (which features a similar 1:1 relation between objects and number words).
Past work in our lab led by Rose Schneider explored this question in US kids. Schneider et al. (2022) found that children who could count to large numbers (CP-knowers) were more likely to match large sets than children who couldn’t count (subset-knowers), but many still didn’t use a 1:1 strategy.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Past work in our lab led by Rose Schneider explored this question in US kids. Schneider et al. (2022) found that children who could count to large numbers (CP-knowers) were more likely to match large sets than children who couldn’t count (subset-knowers), but many still didn’t use a 1:1 strategy.
Yet many innumerate groups approximate instead. Of course, lots has been said about such failures to use 1:1 correspondence in this task. Many have pointed to flaws in task instructions, participant motivation, differences in cultural context, as potential explanations beyond the role of language.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Yet many innumerate groups approximate instead. Of course, lots has been said about such failures to use 1:1 correspondence in this task. Many have pointed to flaws in task instructions, participant motivation, differences in cultural context, as potential explanations beyond the role of language.
In one test of knowledge, participants are asked to construct a set that matches the experimenter’s set in number. The idea being that, even those who don’t have a counting system may recognize that two sets are equal if they are in 1:1 correspondence.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
In one test of knowledge, participants are asked to construct a set that matches the experimenter’s set in number. The idea being that, even those who don’t have a counting system may recognize that two sets are equal if they are in 1:1 correspondence.
Thus far, the debate in this literature has been centred around the claim that people who lack linguistic symbols for large numbers cannot reason about Hume’s principle — that 2 sets placed in 1:1 correspondence are exactly equal.
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Thus far, the debate in this literature has been centred around the claim that people who lack linguistic symbols for large numbers cannot reason about Hume’s principle — that 2 sets placed in 1:1 correspondence are exactly equal.
Just in: @drbarner.bsky.social & I find that blind adults and children who have symbols for large numbers, and use 1:1 correspondence to count, do not extend a similar 1:1 strategy to a set-matching task, which assesses their knowledge of Hume’s principle. A 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Exact numerical reasoning in blind children and adults
What is the origin of exact numerical reasoning in humans? Previous studies report that innumerate humans are unable to recognize that two sets placed…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 26, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Just in: @drbarner.bsky.social & I find that blind adults and children who have symbols for large numbers, and use 1:1 correspondence to count, do not extend a similar 1:1 strategy to a set-matching task, which assesses their knowledge of Hume’s principle. A 🧵:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Urvi Maheshwari ツ
My paper "Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities" (PhilTransB) addresses a whole class of questions around the role that semiotic modality, and specifically number words vs. number symbols, plays in the structure of numerical systems.
Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
The base concept in number systems is realized differently across multiple representational modalities—frameworks that incorporate sensory channel, medium of expression and semantic structures into integrated semiotic systems. Because these three factors ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
October 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM
My paper "Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities" (PhilTransB) addresses a whole class of questions around the role that semiotic modality, and specifically number words vs. number symbols, plays in the structure of numerical systems.
@tpcanoe.bsky.social had us create geotags for sites and map migratory patterns on google maps. This was years ago (so I don’t remember specifics) but I remember it being a fun assignment!
October 1, 2025 at 1:00 PM
@tpcanoe.bsky.social had us create geotags for sites and map migratory patterns on google maps. This was years ago (so I don’t remember specifics) but I remember it being a fun assignment!