UC San Diego psychologist David Barner led one of the studies, and he argues that abacus training can significantly boost math skills with effects potentially lasting for decades. Researchers from Harvard to China have studied the device, showing that abacus students often learn more than students who use more modern approaches. The word "calculate" comes from the expression “drawing pebbles,” basically using some sort of abacus-like device to do math. The Romans had some sort of counting device with beads. ![]() The abacus: an ancient technology with modern relevanceĪs a technology, the abacus predates the making of glass and the invention of the alphabet. Along the way, I learned surprising insights into how people gain new skills. To calculate a problem, you move the discs up and down until you get to a solution.įor much of that evening, Stevenson used a practice called "mental abacus," envisioning the abacus in her mind and then using her fingers to work through the problem.įrom watching Stevenson, I knew that gaining skills on the abacus was more than a matter of counting beads, and so I decided to enroll myself and my two daughters in an abacus course to see if we could also hone our math skills. The small discs have different values, and the four beads on the bottom have a value of 1. As I discovered while reporting on a book on the science of learning, the typical abacus has small discs that move up and down on thin posts. The key to her success was an ancient technology called the abacus. But she also answered many of the problems correctly, including the addition of multiple five-digit numbers in her head. Sometimes she would get problems wrong and smile and shrug. The movements were fast and exact.įor almost an hour, she used the abacus-based approach to solve math problems. ![]() ![]() For each question, she closed her eyes, and then the fingers of her right hand began to twitch, a progression of plucks and jerks. A few years ago, I stood in a small basement classroom just outside of New York City, watching a high schooler named Serena Stevenson answer math questions in rapid succession.
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