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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

number figures

English answer:

visual representations of numbers, objects representing numbers

Added to glossary by Kasia Bogucka
Jun 5, 2014 10:31
10 yrs ago
English term

number figures

English Social Sciences Psychology cognitive testing
What exactly is the meaning of the above expression in the following context? I am not clear about the 'figures' part of it in particular:
"Cognitive ---- Perceptual Speed & Speed of Closure ---- Processing Speed; This is a grouping of abilities defined as the ability to perform automatic mental tasks efficiently. Strength in this area indicates abilities in working quickly with number figures or finding patterns of information within other distracting information. People with strengths in this area would have capabilities in any job that involved quickly checking the accuracy of records and finding information."
I would appreciate your help.
Responses
3 +5 visual representations of numbers, objects representing numbers
Change log

Jun 5, 2014 16:10: luskie changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (3): DLyons, B D Finch, luskie

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Discussion

Kasia Bogucka (asker) Jun 5, 2014:
@ Charles It actually looks like the author of the text in question wanted to kill two birds with one stone. They must have meant 'visual representations of numbers' referring to hidden objects in some of the test questions, while at the same time they must have meant 'numbers' when referring to the matching of lotto numbers or finding a pattern in a sequence of numbers with gaps to be filled, which requires some mathematical reasoning. Thank you Charles for your invaluable input.
Charles Davis Jun 5, 2014:
Pardon me for butting in, but the expression "number figure", though not exactly common, is not new. As I've said, it's used, for example, in the new translation of Frege's Grundlagen by two academic philosophers, published by OUP last year. It is (apparently) a term of art.

I think it is hazardous to assume that this is a clumsy mistake by someone who didn't know how to express their ideas properly. It is most probably a quite deliberate and precise usage.
Kasia Bogucka (asker) Jun 5, 2014:
@ B D An interesting point, and very feasible, too. The brevity of some English expressions can sometimes backfire :) Thanks a mil!
B D Finch Jun 5, 2014:
@Kasia Native speakers make mistakes too! You are right about the combination of singular and plural, which makes "number" adjectival. Possibly, they didn't know how to express the idea of numbers written in figures, rather than in words. They might even hope that the expression they have coined will spread; it is shorter than the usual way of putting it.
Kasia Bogucka (asker) Jun 5, 2014:
The original was written by a native speaker, I can't figure out what they meant here exactly. Especially that one word is in a singular and the other in a plural form, which would indicate an intended expression. The hidden objects might have number forms, for example. In other tests the task is to match the numbers.
B D Finch Jun 5, 2014:
An error? Could this just be poor drafting of the source text and an author who couldn't decide whether to write "numbers" or "figures" and so combined the terms?
Kasia Bogucka (asker) Jun 5, 2014:
Does 'figure' stand for an 'image' or 'shape' then?
DLyons Jun 5, 2014:
Well, that's what I said first :-) A drawing, an image containing numbers.
Kasia Bogucka (asker) Jun 5, 2014:
There is no comma and the second part refers to tests involving finding hidden objects in a picture. The objects wouldn't normally be associated with the scene in the picture.
DLyons Jun 5, 2014:
There's no specific distractions in that task. Might the text mean "numbers, figures, or finding..."?
Kasia Bogucka (asker) Jun 5, 2014:
All that I know is that one of the tests in this category involves checking numbers on a lotto ticket against draw numbers.
DLyons Jun 5, 2014:
Maybe it refers to things like "captchas" where digits are put on a randomized background and have their shapes deformed?

Responses

+5
45 mins
Selected

visual representations of numbers, objects representing numbers

I would guess that this term is probably being used here in the way the psychologist Vygotsky (or rather his translator) uses it:

"Some authors say that the child's arithmetic develops from direct perception of number figures and this means that it is necessary to study with number figures — wands, points, ones, twos. Others say that the child must be taught not with number figures where the numbers are always given in certain forms, but must rather be freed from them to pass more rapidly to mediated counting. W. Laj and other adherents of the method of number figures showed with many experiments that the child who carries out counting operations with the help of number figures, visual samples, master these operations much more quickly."
http://books.google.es/books?id=Wvy8rt0kzf0C&pg=PA152&lpg=PA...

Actually it seems to be used in this sense in the English translation of Frege's Basic Laws of Arithmetic:
http://books.google.es/books?id=ZxcbAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA126&lp...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2014-06-05 11:32:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

In principle, it's a perfectly sensible term, actually, if you want to be precise. A number like two is something abstract, something that has "twoness". "2" is not a number, it's a figure: a representation, a symbol, if you like. But not just any figure: specifically a figure that represents a number. There are, of course, figures that represent things other than numbers. :) is a figure, representing goodwill, friendliness, etc. And there are other figures or symbols apart from digits that can represent numbers, potentially. "Number figure" would simply be a term for a figure (whether a digit or some other kind) that represents a number, and the text is referring to the ability to work quickly with such figures.
Peer comment(s):
agree luskie
20 mins
Thanks, luskie :)
agree Veronika McLaren
2 hrs
Thanks, Veronika :)
agree Tina Vonhof (X) : Here is an example: http://mentalcalculations.150m.com/mental_ability__test_1.ht...
3 hrs
Thanks, Tina :)
agree B D Finch : Yes, it does make sense now. In fact, I still use patterns learned in infant school to count things with, to avoid counting one item at a time, but hadn't known they were "number figures".
4 hrs
Thanks, Barbara. I will not pretend I had ever heard this term before, and even in specialised texts it is quite rare.
agree Zsofia Koszegi-Nagy
4 hrs
Thanks, Zsofia!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you :)"
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