From Phys.org:
Based on each child's success rate with numbers one through eight, the researchers could classify them into different stages of number learning… The findings suggest that these stages of number-learning are a necessary part of the process of building number concepts, says Barbara Sarnecka, an associate professor of cognitive sciences at the University of California, Irvine…"Basically, everyone seems to follow the same path to number knowledge, whether they are a preschooler in a highly industrialized, numerate society or a 12-year-old in a farming and foraging society in Bolivia. That tells us a lot about how number concepts are built in the mind," she says.

For the full story, please visit http://phys.org/news/2014-06-culture.html.