| Abstract: | ABSTRACT— Representations of abstract quantities such as time and number are essential for survival. A number of studies have revealed that both humans and nonhuman animals are able to nonverbally estimate time and number; striking similarities in the behavioral data suggest a common magnitude-representation system shared across species. It is unclear, however, whether these representations provide animals with a true concept of time and number, as posited by Gallistel and Gelman (2000) . In this article, we review the prominent cognitive and neurobiological models of timing and counting and explore the current evidence suggesting that nonhuman animals represent these quantities in a modality-independent (i.e., abstract) and ordered manner. Avenues for future research in the area of temporal and mathematical cognition are also discussed. |
