Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

How do people reason about mathematical concepts like addition and subtraction? According to one proposal, mathemat-ical thinking is supported in part by the approximate number system (ANS), a primitive cognitive system for estimatingthe numerosity of a set, without counting. Here we tested this proposal in the Tsiman, a culture of farmer-foragers inthe Bolivian Amazon. Compared to industrialized societies like the US, the Tsiman have high variability in their level ofeducation and number knowledge. In a large sample of Tsiman adults, math ability was positively correlated with ANSperformance, consistent with previous findings. However, this correlation disappeared when controlling for participantseducation, and when controlling for their ability to sustain attention. These findings challenge the claim that the ANSsupports math ability. Rather, performance on ANS tasks and math tasks may both be shaped by non-numerical abilitiespracticed (or selected for) in educational settings.