Number concepts: abstract and embodied
- Numerical knowledge, including number concepts and arithmetic procedures, seems to be a clear-cut case for abstract symbol manipulation. Yet, evidence from perceptual and motor behaviour reveals that natural number knowledge and simple arithmetic also remain closely associated with modal experiences. Following a review of behavioural, animal and neuroscience studies of number processing, we propose a revised understanding of psychological number concepts as grounded in physical constraints, embodied in experience and situated through task-specific intentions. The idea that number concepts occupy a range of positions on the continuum between abstract and modal conceptual knowledge also accounts for systematic heuristics and biases in mental arithmetic, thus inviting psycho-logical approaches to the study of the mathematical mind.
Author details: | Martin H. FischerORCiDGND, Samuel ShakiORCiD |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0125 |
ISSN: | 0962-8436 |
ISSN: | 1471-2970 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29914993 |
Title of parent work (English): | Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences |
Publisher: | Royal Society |
Place of publishing: | London |
Publication type: | Review |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2018/06/18 |
Publication year: | 2018 |
Release date: | 2021/10/18 |
Tag: | SNARC effect; embodied cognition; mental arithmetic; mental number line; numerical cognition |
Volume: | 373 |
Issue: | 1752 |
Number of pages: | 8 |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Biochemie und Biologie |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie |