CHAPTER 43: Emergent Insights into Mathematical Intelligence from Cognitive Science¹

In this article, I point to a handful of recent developments in cognitive science in an attempt to highlight how they might contribute to a rethinking of the nature of mathematical intelligence. In the process, I also offer some preliminary speculations on what these developments might mean for the teaching of mathematics.

I must begin with a disclaimer: Cognitive science is a burgeoning field. It is really only a half-century old, and it has just taken off in the last decade, spurred along by the invention of technologies that enable researchers to peer into brains in real time. Some surprising observations have been made—ones that have compelled researchers to question and reject an array of deeply entrenched assumptions about how people learn, how brains work, what thinking is, and what intelligence is all about.