The discovery that the brain has different systems for representing small and large numbers provokes new questions about memory, attention and mathematics. The post Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better first appeared on Quanta Magazine
More than 150 years ago, the economist and philosopher William Stanley Jevons discovered something curious about the number 4. While musing about how the mind conceives of numbers, he tossed a handful of black beans into a cardboard box. Then, after a fleeting glance, he guessed how many there were, before counting them to record the true value. After more than 1,000 trials, he saw a clear pattern.