April 21, 2006, 17:50
zmježdsubitizing words in a sentence
I was reading some PowerPoint slides by a CalTech professor
Mark Changizi, when I
came across an interesting word:
subitize 'to judge the number (of objects in a group) rapidly, accurately, and confidently without counting them'. It's from the Latin word
subitus 'sudden', ppl of
subeo 'to come / go under, succeed'. It was coined in 1949 in the field of psychology. Changizi has recently co-authored a paper on letter shapes that was mentioned in this
article in the Daily Telegraph.
April 21, 2006, 21:36
KallehInteresting word, Zmj. It made me wonder about exceptional talents that autistic people sometimes have in being able to accurately know the number of objects present, when they are in a large group (remember the "Rain Man" movie?). Would that be subitizing?
April 21, 2006, 22:25
zmježdI think it's more in the real of being able to see three or four objects without counting them. The knowing how much change somebody dropped or the number of matches is a little out of the ordinary.