Abstract
Once upon a time there was complex numerical estimation
Highlights
During the last decade, evidence collected in cognitive, developmental, and comparative research showed that adults prevented from verbal counting, along with infants and non-human animals possess numerical systems that are independent of language
The idea that organisms with such a small brain size can somehow process numerical information has opened a wide debate in the scientific community as to whether these studies have properly controlled for non-numerical continuous variables that co-vary with numbers
Stimuli— patterns representing objects differing in numerosity—were strictly controlled for non-numerical continuous quantities that co-vary with numbers, preventing the possibility that results were due to a more general ability to estimate continuous amounts
Summary
Evidence collected in cognitive, developmental, and comparative research showed that adults prevented from verbal counting, along with infants and non-human animals possess numerical systems that are independent of language (the so-called “non-verbal numerical abilities”). The idea that organisms with such a small brain size can somehow process numerical information has opened a wide debate in the scientific community as to whether these studies have properly controlled for non-numerical continuous variables that co-vary with numbers (i.e., cumulative surface area, density, overall space occupied by the groups, etc.).
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