Core Systems of Number (Feigenson, Dehaene & Spelke, 2004)

What is the main idea of Feigenson

Dehaene & Spelke (2004)?

Why is mathematics considered both easy and hard?

Easy because humans have innate number systems and babies/animals already understand basic quantities; hard because advanced mathematics (fractions

What are the two core number systems

in brief?

What does the ANS represent

and what can/can't it do?

How do habituation studies show infants detect numerical change?

Infants viewing repeated arrays (e.g. 8 dots) look longer at a new array with a different number (e.g. 16 dots)

What is meant by ratio-dependent performance in the ANS?

Discrimination depends on the ratio between quantities

How does ANS precision change with age?

It improves with development; 6-month-olds discriminate at a 1:2 ratio

What evidence shows the ANS represents abstract number rather than just visual patterns?

Infants can discriminate quantities across different senses/formats; dot arrays

What simple numerical reasoning can infants perform using the ANS?

They can compare quantities

What is the mental number line

and what are its key properties?

What does Core System 2 represent

and what is its capacity?

What did the hidden cracker experiment find?

Infants succeeded at choosing the larger amount for 1 vs 2 and 2 vs 3

What did object-tracking experiments find about infants' small-number memory?

Infants correctly remembered 1

Besides number

what else does Core System 2 represent?

What are the key characteristics of Core System 2?

Exact

How do the Approximate System and Small Number System differ in what they represent and how?

ANS: large numbers

What evidence exists for an ANS in animals?

Rats

What evidence exists for an exact small-number system in animals?

Monkeys succeeded at 1 vs 2

What brain region underlies the ANS

and what functions does it support?

What are number-selective neurons

and what evidence supports them?

What is known about the brain basis of the small number system?

It remains less certain

What do children build on top of the two core systems as they develop?

They later learn counting

What do the two core systems explain

and what are their limits?

Summarise Core System 1 (ANS) in one line?

Represents large numbers approximately

Summarise Core System 2 in one line?

Represents small numbers (1–3/4) exactly

What is the overall conclusion about how advanced mathematics develops?

Both core systems are present early in life and across species