PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Dev. Psychol.
Sec. Cognitive Development
This article is part of the Research TopicInsights and Future Directions in Cognitive DevelopmentView all 10 articles
Beyond the dualism between domain-general and domain-specific abilities: a developmental approach to mathematical learning
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Trento, Trento, Italy
- 2Link Campus University, Rome, Italy
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Understanding how cognitive abilities support mathematical learning across development remains a central question in developmental psychology. Traditionally, research has distinguished between domain-specific abilities, such as numerical systems underlying the Approximate Number System (ANS) and Object Tracking System (OTS), and domain-general abilities, including working memory and executive functions. This paper proposes a developmental and dynamic framework that integrates previous theoretical perspectives and extends them to the earliest stages of life, suggesting that in early development learning may rely primarily on mechanisms dedicated to numerical understanding, whereas with age and schooling, broader cognitive resources gradually become more influential in supporting complex mathematical reasoning.
Keywords: approximate number system, Domain-general abilities, domain-specific abilities, Numerical cognition, Object tracking system
Received: 27 Oct 2025; Accepted: 10 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Decarli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Gisella Decarli
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