Arithmetical ability seems similarly to be subdivided, according to Miss
Cobb.[42] She made measurements of the efficiency with which children
and their parents could do problems in addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division, and could copy a column of figures. "The
measurements made," she writes, "show that if, for instance, a child is
much quicker than the average in subtraction, but not in addition,
multiplication or division, it is to be expected that one at least of
his parents shows a like trait; or if he falls below the average in
subtraction and multiplication, and exceeds it in addition and division,
again the same will hold true of at least one of his parents." These
various kinds of arithmetic appear to be due to different functions of
the brain, and are therefore probably inherited independently, if they
are inherited at all.
To assume that the resemblance between parent and offspring in
arithmetical ability is due to association, training and imitation is
not plausible. If this were the case, a class of children ought to come
to resemble their teacher, but they do not. Moreover, the child
sometimes resembles more closely the parent with whom he has been less
associated in daily life.
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