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How the Human Mind Grounds Numerical Quantities on Space
Author(s) -
de Hevia Maria Dolores
Publication year - 2021
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.12398
Subject(s) - representation (politics) , space (punctuation) , numerical cognition , cognitive psychology , psychology , spatial cognition , spatial ability , cognition , cognitive science , mental representation , computer science , theoretical computer science , developmental psychology , neuroscience , operating system , politics , political science , law
The propensity to use a spatial framework to organize other pieces of information is a widespread phenomenon that permeates humans’ representation of diverse concepts, including numerical quantities. Developmental studies on numerical cognition have revealed that humans possess a system for abstract quantity representation that is functional at birth and connects to a spatial representation system. Human infants, children, and adults link increases and decreases in numerical quantity to corresponding increases and decreases of spatial extent, as well as to lateralized right/left spatial positions, respectively. In this article, I discuss the origins of number‐space mappings, their presence throughout development, and their functional properties. I also argue that number‐space mappings reflect inborn biases, possibly shared across other species, that support both efficient magnitude processing and serial learning.