Measuring the Mathematical Mind: Embodied Evidence from Motor Resonance, Negative Numbers, Calculation Biases, and Emotional Priming

Embodied cognition opposes the view of the mind as a computer. It is therefore diagnostic to assess how our bodies contribute to our computations—i.e., to numerical cognition. We begin by pointing out how embodied cognition changed our methodological focus from button-pressing to movement analyses. Then we review our recent work on how the pervasive association between numbers and space influences number-related tasks, beginning with single-digit processing and comprehending negative numbers. These studies address the challenge to embodied cognition from using abstract concepts and also introduce the promising grip-force methodology. Next, we describe how grounded, embodied, and situated knowledge representations impose systematic heuristics and biases on mental arithmetic. A new model explains how we activate our motor system while calculating. Finally, we document how emotional processing interacts with calculating and identify cross-domain cognitive principles. This work converges on supporting an embodied understanding of the mathematical mind.