How do we understand numbers? Do animals and babies have numerical abilities? Why do some people fail to grasp numbers, and how we can improve numerical understanding? Numbers are vital to so many areas of life: in science, economics, sports, education, and many aspects of everyday life from infancy onwards. Numerical cognition is a vibrant area that brings together scientists from different and diverse research areas (e.g., neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, comparative psychology, anthropology, education, and neuroscience) using different methodological approaches (e.g., behavioral studies of healthy children and adults and of patients; electrophysiology and brain imaging studies in humans; single-cell neurophysiology in non-human primates, habituation studies in human infants and animals, and computer modeling). While the study of numerical cognition had been relatively neglected for a long time, during the last decade there has been an explosion of studies and new findings. This has resulted in an enormous advance in our understanding of the neural and cognitive mechanisms of numerical cognition. In addition, there has recently been increasing interest and concern about pupils' mathematical achievement in many countries, resulting in attempts to use research to guide mathematics instruction in schools, and to develop interventions for children with mathematical difficulties. This handbook brings together the different research areas that make up the field of numerical cognition in one comprehensive and authoritative volume. The chapters provide a broad and extensive review that is written in an accessible form for scholars and students, as well as educationalists, clinicians, and policy makers. The book covers the most important aspects of research on numerical cognition from the areas of development psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and rehabilitation, learning disabilities, human and animal cognition and neuroscience, computational modeling, education and individual differences, and philosophy. Containing more than 60 chapters by leading specialists in their fields, the Oxford Handbook of Numerical Cognition is a state-of-the-art review of the current literature.

Numerical Cognition: The Basics provides an understanding of the neural and cognitive mechanisms that enable us to perceive, process, and memorize numerical information. Starting from basic numerical competencies that humans share with other species, the book explores the mental coding of numbers and their neural representation. It explains the strategies of mental calculation, their pitfalls and their development, as well as the developmental steps children make while learning about numbers. The book gradually builds our understanding of the underlying mental processes of numeracy and concludes with an insightful examination of the diagnosis, etiology and treatment of dyscalculia. Written in an accessible manner, the book summarizes and critically evaluates the major psychological explanations for various empirical phenomena in numerical cognition. Containing a wealth of student-friendly features including end of chapter summaries, informative figures, further reading lists, and links to relevant websites, Numerical Cognition: The Basics is an essential starting point for anybody new to the field.

Continuous Issues in Numerical Cognition: How Many or How Much re-examines the widely accepted view that there exists a core numerical system within human beings and an innate ability to perceive and count discrete quantities. This core knowledge involves the brain's intraparietal sulcus, and a deficiency in this region has traditionally been thought to be the basis for arithmetic disability. However, new research findings suggest this wide agreement needs to be examined carefully and that perception of sizes and other non-countable amounts may be the true precursors of numerical ability. This cutting-edge book examines the possibility that perception and evaluation of non-countable dimensions may be involved in the development of numerical cognition. Discussions of the above and related issues are important for the achievement of a comprehensive understanding of numerical cognition, its brain basis, development, breakdown in brain-injured individuals, and failures to master mathematical skills. - Serves as an innovative reference on the emerging field of numerical cognition and the branches that converge on this diverse topic - Features chapters from leading researchers in the field - Includes an overview of the multiple disciplines that comprise numerical cognition and discusses the measures that can be used in analysis - Introduces novel ideas that connect non-countable continuous variables to numerical cognition

Heterogeneity of Function in Numerical Cognition presents the latest updates on ongoing research and discussions regarding numerical cognition. With great individual differences in the development or function of numerical cognition at neuroanatomical, neuropsychological, behavioral, and interactional levels, these issues are important for the achievement of a comprehensive understanding of numerical cognition, hence its brain basis, development, breakdown in brain-injured individuals, and failures to master mathematical skills. These functions are essential for the proper development of numerical cognition. - Provides an innovative reference on the emerging field of numerical cognition and the branches that converge on this diverse cognitive domain - Includes an overview of the multiple disciplines that comprise numerical cognition - Focuses on factors that influence numerical cognition, such as language, executive attention, memory and spatial processing - Features an innovative organization with each section providing a general overview, developmental research, and evidence from neurocognitive studies

How do we understand numbers? Do animals and babies have numerical abilities? Why do some people fail to grasp numbers, and how we can improve numerical understanding? Numbers are vital to so many areas of life: in science, economics, sports, education, and many aspects of everyday life from infancy onwards. Numerical cognition is a vibrant area that brings together scientists from different and diverse research areas (e.g., neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, comparative psychology, anthropology, education, and neuroscience) using different methodological approaches (e.g., behavioral studies of healthy children and adults and of patients; electrophysiology and brain imaging studies in humans; single-cell neurophysiology in non-human primates, habituation studies in human infants and animals, and computer modeling). While the study of numerical cognition had been relatively neglected for a long time, during the last decade there has been an explosion of studies and new findings. This has resulted in an enormous advance in our understanding of the neural and cognitive mechanisms of numerical cognition. In addition, there has recently been increasing interest and concern about pupils' mathematical achievement in many countries, resulting in attempts to use research to guide mathematics instruction in schools, and to develop interventions for children with mathematical difficulties. This handbook brings together the different research areas that make up the field of numerical cognition in one comprehensive and authoritative volume. The chapters provide a broad and extensive review that is written in an accessible form for scholars and students, as well as educationalists, clinicians, and policy makers. The book covers the most important aspects of research on numerical cognition from the areas of development psychology, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and rehabilitation, learning disabilities, human and animal cognition and neuroscience, computational modeling, education and individual differences, and philosophy. Containing more than 60 chapters by leading specialists in their fields, the Oxford Handbook of Numerical Cognition is a state-of-the-art review of the current literature.

Arithmetic disability stems from deficits in neurodevelopment, with great individual differences in development or function of an individual at neuroanatomical, neuropsychological, behavioral, and interactional levels. Heterogeneous Contributions to Numerical Cognition: Learning and Education in Mathematical Cognition examines research in mathematical education methods and their neurodevelopmental basis, focusing on the underlying neurodevelopmental features that must be taken into account when teaching and learning mathematics. Cognitive domains and functions such as executive functions, memory, attention, and language contribute to numerical cognition and are essential for its proper development. These lines of research and thinking in neuroscience are discussed in this book to further the understanding of the neurodevelopmental and cognitive basis of more complex forms of mathematics – and how to best teach them. By unravelling the basic building blocks of numerical thinking and the developmental basis of human capacity for arithmetic, this book and the discussions within are important for the achievement of a comprehensive understanding of numerical cognition, its brain basis, development, breakdown in brain-injured individuals, and failures to master mathematical skills. - A novel innovative reference on the emerging field of numerical cognition and neurodevelopment underlying mathematical education - Includes an overview of the multiple disciplines that comprise numerical cognition written by world-leading researchers in the numerical cognition and neurodevelopment fields - Features an innovative organization with each section providing a general overview, developmental research, neurocognitive mechanisms, and discussion about relevant studies

This book presents a philosophical interpretation to numerical cognition based on dual process theories and heuristics. It shows how investigations in cognitive science can shed light on issues traditionally raised by philosophers of mathematics. The analysis will also help readers to better understand the relationship between current neuroscientific research and the philosophical reflection on mathematics. The author seeks to explain the acquisition of mathematical concepts. To accomplish this, he needs to answer two questions. How can the concepts of approximate numerosity become an object of thought that is so accessible to our consciousness? How are these concepts refined and specified in such a way as to become numbers? Unfortunately, there is currently no model that can truly demonstrate the role of language in the development of numerical skills starting from approximate pre-verbal skills. However, the author details a solution to this problem: dual process theories. It is an approach widely used by theorists focusing on reasoning, decision making, social cognition, and consciousness. Here, he applies this approach to the studies on mathematical knowledge. He details the results brought about by psychological and neuroscientific studies conducted on numerical cognition by key neuroscientists. In the process, he develops the foundations of a new, potential philosophical explanation on mathematical knowledge.

We are born with a “number sense” - the ability to respond to numerosity, which we share with other vertebrates. This inherited numerosity representation is approximate and follows the Weber-Fechner law that governs sensory perception. As educated adults we can also use culturally developed abstract symbol systems to represent exact numerosities – in particular number words and Arabic numbers. This developmental stage is preceded by an apparently transient phase of finger counting and finger calculation. In fact, the use of fingers to represent number is ubiquitous across ages and cultures. Children use finger counting even if they are discouraged to do so, sometimes even before they are able to utter the number word sequence. Furthermore, finger counting strategies may also be used by adults diagnosed with dyscalculia to make up for a deficient or absent mental number representation. The advantages of finger counting are evident: Fingers are readily available and perceptually salient, finger-numerical representations support short term memory and they provide a transparent one-to-one relationship between to-be-counted objects and their representation. Obviously, however, these advantages only hold for small numbers. Fully transparent finger counting systems are limited to the number range between zero and ten. Larger numbers can only be represented in perceptually less salient or symbolic ways. In recent years, a growing body of evidence has suggested that finger-based representations of number do not form an arbitrary and transient stage of cognitive development. Rather, they seem to provide a good example of embodied cognition. According to this influential viewpoint, all of our knowledge is represented together with the sensory and motor activity that was present during its acquisition. As a consequence, even a supposedly abstract cognitive ability such as numerical cognition reuses the neural substrate and inherits functional properties of more basic perceptual and/or motor processes. Consistent with this assumption, finger counting habits and numerical processing do interact even in educated adults, casting doubts on purely abstract accounts of mental number representations. The objective of this Research Topic is to document embodiment signatures in number processing and calculation – a domain of cognition that was long considered to epitomize the abstract symbol manipulation approach to human cognition. To this end, we invite empirical contributions using different methodologies including behavioural, developmental, neuroscientific, educational, cross-cultural, and neuropsychological studies. Moreover, we also seek theoretical contributions, review articles, or opinion papers. Questions to be tackled may include, but are not restricted to the following: Is finger counting only a useful or even a necessary step towards the acquisition of symbolic number representations? What are the neural correlates of the finger-number relationship? Which features of finger counting influence adult number processing – both approximate and exact? How can finger counting systems be classified typologically and how do different finger counting systems influence numerical cognition across cultures and populations? Should finger counting and finger calculation be promoted or discouraged in maths education? How are disturbances of finger gnosis and numerical abilities linked? We hope that this Research Topic will bring together researchers from different backgrounds to fruitfully discuss a topic which has both scientific and every-day relevance.

Despite once being reserved as perhaps a unique human ability, and one reliant on language, comparative and developmental research has shown that numerical abilities predate verbal language. Human infants and several non-human species have been shown to represent numerical information in varied contexts, and the capacity to discriminate both small and large numerosities has been reported in mammals, birds, amphibians, and fish. The similar performances often observed across such diverse species have led to the hypothesis that there may be shared core systems underlying number abilities of non-human species and human non-verbal numerical abilities. Thus, animal models could provide useful insight on our comprehension of numerical cognition, and in particular the evolution of non-verbal numerical abilities. Several aspects need be clarified. For instance the ontogeny of numerical competence in animals has been rarely investigated. It is unclear whether all species can represent numerical information or, on the contrary, use non-numerical continuous quantities that co-vary with number (such as cumulative surface area, density and space). In addition, the existence of a specific mechanism to process small numbers (<4), traditionally called ‘subitizing’, is highly debated. Neuro-anatomical correlates of numerical competence need also to be clarified, as well as brain lateralization of non-verbal numerical abilities. We solicit contributions in a variety of formats, from empirical research reports, to methodological, review and opinion papers that can advance our understanding on the topic. We particularly invite papers exploring the following issues: 1. Do non-human numerical abilities improve in precision across development as observed in human infants? 2. Can animals discriminate between quantities by using numerical information only? Is number a ‘last resort’ strategy adopted when no other continuous quantity is available? 3. To what extent do animals show similar numerical abilities? Do they show evidence of a subitizing-like process? 4. What kinds of things can be represented numerically by animals? What evidence is there for cross-modal numerical judgments, or judgments of sub-sets of stimuli, or perhaps even counting-like behavior in non-human species? 5. Do comparative studies help us to shed light on the neuro-anatomical correlates of number? By bringing together different studies on these issues we aim to contribute to a more complete picture of numerical competence in the absence of language.