In my lab, we are particularly interested in numerical development and understanding of objects — how the early number skills of young infants, possibly even newborns, get built upon to develop a uniquely human capacity for symbolic math.

The roots of those abilities and those skills seem to come from an endowment that is evolutionarily ancient and that we share with most other species.

I've always been fascinated with the idea that you can have this sophisticated knowledge — at least the foundations of it — in place, very early on. And we know now that it's very broadly available across animal species. Species as different from humans as fish: Guppies are sensitive to numbers in the environment. Of course, primates are. Salamanders. Various insects. It's this basic ability that helps animals navigate their environment. I mean, literally, navigate the environment by calculating angles and distances and so forth. It helps them choose the greater amount of food if they're choosing between two quantities. It shows up in foraging contexts all the time.

So I've gotten interested in how these early abilities might provide a foundation for these much more sophisticated abilities that humans grasp pretty ubiquitously. If you're exposed to math and counting, all humans will get it to a degree. Some more easily than others, of course, we all experience that. But the capacity is certainly available.

Being literate with numbers and math is becoming increasingly important in modern society — perhaps even more important than literacy, which was the focus of a lot of educational initiatives for so many years.

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