Abstract

The chapters in this section of the volume reveal the striking variety of human numerical cognition. The section comprises four chapters that focus on different aspects of the representation of numerical knowledge, as well as three chapters that examine the several cognitive processes involved in the manipulation of numbers during simple mental arithmetic. They show how chronometric analyses, in combination with clever experimental designs, can reveal the cognitive processes and representations underlying this impressive collection of cognitive skills. Our goal in this overview chapter is to highlight common themes that connect these contributions. In particular, we suggest links between the present contributions, all of which are firmly grounded in the traditional information-processing approach to the human mind, and the more recently emerged embodied cognition perspective, according to which all knowledge representations remain associated with those sensory and motor features that were activated during acquisition of that knowledge.