Premium
How Evolution Constrains Human Numerical Concepts
Author(s) -
Cantlon Jessica F.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/cdep.12264
Subject(s) - cognition , cognitive science , representation (politics) , human evolution , numerical cognition , perception , comparative cognition , object (grammar) , psychology , animal cognition , biological evolution , cognitive systems , computer science , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , evolutionary biology , biology , neuroscience , genetics , politics , political science , law
The types of cognitive and neural mechanisms available to children for making concepts depend on the problems their brains evolved to solve over the past millions of years. Comparative research on numerical cognition with humans and nonhuman primates has revealed a system for quantity representation that lays the foundation for quantitative development. Nonhuman primates in particular share many human abilities to compute quantities, and are likely to exhibit evolutionary continuity with humans. While humans conceive of quantity in ways that are similar to other primates, they are unique in their capacity for symbolic counting and logic. These uniquely human constructs interact with primitive systems of numerical reasoning. In this article, I discuss how evolution shapes human numerical concepts through evolutionary constraints on human object‐based perception and cognition, neural homologies among primates, and interactions between uniquely human concepts and primitive logic.