Numerical cognition

Cognitive psychology
Perception
Visual Object recognition Face recognition Pattern recognition
Attention
Memory
Aging Emotional Learning Long-term
Metacognition
Language
Metalanguage
Thinking
Cognition Concept Reasoning Decision making Problem solving
Numerical cognition
Numerosity adaptation effect Approximate number system Parallel individuation system
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Numerical cognition is a subdiscipline of cognitive science that studies the cognitive, developmental and neural bases of numbers and mathematics. As with many cognitive science endeavors, this is a highly interdisciplinary topic, and includes researchers in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, neuroscience and cognitive linguistics. This discipline, although it may interact with questions in the philosophy of mathematics, is primarily concerned with empirical questions.

Topics included in the domain of numerical cognition include:

• How do non-human animals process numerosity?
• How do infants acquire an understanding of numbers (and how much is inborn)?
• How do humans associate linguistic symbols with numerical quantities?
• How do these capacities underlie our ability to perform complex calculations?
• What are the neural bases of these abilities, both in humans and in non-humans?
• What metaphorical capacities and processes allow us to extend our numerical understanding into complex domains such as the concept of infinity, the infinitesimal or the concept of the limit in calculus?
• Heuristics in numerical cognition