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Addition

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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The study of arithmetical reasoning and numerical understanding has been a topic of interest for cognitive, developmental, and comparative psychologists for many decades. Questions of whether mathematical processes are innate and how they develop has led to many studies on children’s numerical capabilities, including studies designed to help outline the relationships between understanding quantities and numbers and the arithmetical transformations that can change those representations. One well-studied aspect of arithmetical competence in children is the process of addition (e.g., Carpenter et al. 1982). Addition is defined as the process or skill of calculating the total of two or more numbers or amounts. At a young age, children have already gained a simple understanding of the concept of “more” and “less” (Brush 1978), and then they learn to count. But, it is not until they get older that they come to appreciate addition, subtraction, and other operations. Studies with infants have...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Kristin A. French & Michael J. Beran

Authors
  1. Kristin A. French
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  2. Michael J. Beran
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Correspondence to Kristin A. French .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University , Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Southern Oregon University, Ashland, USA

    Mark Krause

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French, K.A., Beran, M.J. (2017). Addition. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1093-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1093-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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