A Tactile-Developmental Technique for Abacus Instruction and Operation

Abstract

□ Both the traditional Japanese-visual techniques and the tactile-developmental technique for abacus instruction and operation emphasize the same goal—efficiency of computation with economy of movement. At each step in the operation of the abacus the operator is involved in two functions, observation (perceiving bead location) and operation (performing bead manipulation). Because observation and operation in the visual technique take place on the two different sensory levels of vision and touch, economy of movement is of concern only in bead manipulation. In the tactile-developmental technique, however, both observation and operation occur on the same sensory level, touch. Economy of movement, therefore, is involved in both these functions. As noted in the discussion above, such economy can be achieved by slightly modifying two of the six basic traditional procedures of bead movement to preclude the duplication of finger movements that would result if the visual technique were applied tactually.