Numerical Cognition: Learning Binds Biology to Culture

A recent exchange in this journal debates whether there is a biologically based capacity for number, or whether number is instead a cultural construction [ 1 Nieder A. Number faculty is rooted in our biological heritage. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2017; 21: 403-404 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (22) Google Scholar , 2 Núñez R.E. Number – biological enculturation beyond natural selection. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2017; 21: 404-405 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar , 3 Núñez R.E. Is there really an evolved capacity for number?. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2017; 21: 409-424 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (107) Google Scholar ]. We propose that consideration of individual (cognitive) learning deserves more emphasis in this discussion. In particular, in addition to the slower time scales of biology and culture, individual learning provides a third, much faster evolutionary time scale, operating within an individual’s lifetime [ 4 Christiansen M.H. Kirby S. Language evolution: consensus and controversies. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2003; 7: 300-307 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (208) Google Scholar ]. At this fast time scale, individuals learn to accommodate cognition (via instruction and trial-and-error learning) to their culture, constrained by their biology. We argue that this perspective integrates different data and domains, and leads to novel conceptualizations and fruitful avenues for future research in numerical cognition.