Synonyms
Definition
The ability to represent and manipulate the approximate quantities of collections of objects.
Introduction
The behavior of a very diverse range of nonhuman species and human infants and young children indicates that they can discriminate the relative quantity of both discrete collections of objects and continuous magnitudes, such as area (Feigenson et al. 2004). Research on these systems has intensified over the past decade, as has the study of the relation between these abilities and children’s learning of formal, symbolic mathematics. The primary focus has been on the ancient approximate number system (ANS) that in turn may be part of a more general magnitude processing system. In primates the systems for magnitude processing are situated in an area of the parietal cortex called the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and functionally integrated with areas of the prefrontal cortex during quantity discriminations (Nieder et al. 2002;...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Ansari, D. (2016). Number symbols in the brain. In D. B. Berch, D. C. Geary, & K. Mann Koepke (Eds.), Development of mathematical cognition: Neural substrates and genetic influences (pp. 27–50). San Diego: Elsevier /Academic Press.
Chu, F. W., vanMarle, K., & Geary, D. C. (2015). Early numerical foundations of young Children’s mathematical development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 132, 205–212.
Feigenson, L., Dehaene, S., & Spelke, E. S. (2004). Core systems of number. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 307–314.
Geary, D. C., Berch, D. B., & Mann Koepke, K. (2015). The evolution of number systems. In D. C. Geary, D. B. Berch, & K. Mann Koepke (Eds.), Evolutionary origins and early development of number processing (pp. 337–355). San Diego: Elsevier /Academic Press.
Halberda, J., & Feigenson, L. (2008). Developmental change in the acuity of the “number sense”: The approximate number system in 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds and adults. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1457–1465.
Hyde, D. C., Boas, D. A., Blair, C., & Carey, S. (2010). Near-infrared spectroscopy shows right parietal specialization for number in pre-verbal infants. NeuroImage, 53, 647–652.
Moyer, R. S., & Landauer, T. K. (1967). The time required for judgments of numerical inequality. Nature, 215, 1519–1520.
Nieder, A., Freedman, D. J., & Miller, E. K. (2002). Representation of the quantity of visual items in the primate prefrontal cortex. Science, 297, 1708–1711.
Piazza, M., Izard, V., Pinel, P., Le Bihan, D., & Dehaene, S. (2004). Distributed and overlapping cerebral representations of number size and luminance during comparative judgments. Neuron, 44, 547–555.
Schneider, M., Beeres, K., Coban, L., Merz, S., Susan Schmidt, S., Stricker, J., & De Smedt, B. (2016). Associations of non-symbolic and symbolic numerical magnitude processing with mathematical competence: A meta-analysis. Developmental Science. doi:10.1111/desc.12372.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Geary, D.C., Berch, D.B. (2016). Quantity Estimation. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3128-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3128-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences