Spatial Representation for Symbolic Numbers and Numerosity

The mental number line has received much attention in the area of mathematical cognition. It indicates how numbers, the basic elements of mathematics, are represented in human mind. This chapter introduces the symbolic and nonsymbolic mental number lines investigated in Chinese samples. Some questions related to the spatial representation of numbers are also presented, specifically with respect to the holistic and compositional representation of two-digit numbers, the onset age of spatial representation of numbers, the dynamics of the mental number line in simple arithmetic, and the nonsymbolic mental number line (or mental numerosity line). The samples were found to use a regular left-to-right spatial representation for one- or two-digit numbers (presented with Arabic digits).