Mental abacus does away with words

摘要

Using a "mental abacus" to do complex calculations seems to free mathematics from its usual dependence on language. Michael Frank of Stanford University in California and David Barner at the University of California, San Diego, found that children in India from a mental abacus club can do complex calculations while listening to a story. US undergrads with no mental abacus training find the task almost impossible (Journal of Experimental Psychology, DOI: 10.1037/30024427).