COGNITIVE-NEUROSCIENTIFIC MECHANISMS OF ORALARITHMETIC DEVELOPMENT
Keywords:
oral arithmetic; embodied cognition; 4E cognition; cognitive neuroscience; mechanistic explanation; sensitive periods; working memory; approximate number system; neuropedagogy; primary education.Abstract
The development of oral arithmetic competencies in primary school children constitutes a paradigm case for an interdisciplinary inquiry that integrates cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind. The present paper proposes a theoretically grounded, integrative account of the cognitive-neuroscientific mechanisms underlying oral arithmetic development the Embodied Perceptual-Neurological Model (EPNM) and identifies three developmentally sensitive periods during which these mechanisms are most amenable to environmental input. Drawing on the 4E cognition framework (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended cognition), mechanistic explanation in cognitive neuroscience, and the neurodevelopmental theory of arithmetic, the model articulates how proto-arithmetical bodily resources, working-memory architectures, and culturally scaffolded strategies interact to produce oral arithmetic competence across ages 6–10. Particular attention is devoted to the philosophy-of-science dimensions of the inquiry: the status of mechanistic explanations in cognitive neuroscience, the theoretical challenges posed by the embodied turn, and the epistemological implications of sensitive period research for neuropedagogical design.
