Are Rational Numbers Spontaneous? Natural Numbers Suffice all Processing by the Number Sense.

The presence of preverbal numerical abilities in animals and infants is widely established, but an important discussion remains about which cognitive systems support these abilities. In particular, a great amount of research is dedicated to the approximate number system (ANS) for the elaboration of non-symbolic numbers and their possible types of mental numeric representations. In a recently published article, Clarke and Beck (2021) provide a series of evidence that supports its existence (ANS) and argue that the mental referents of this system are both natural and rational numbers.