Development of Mathematical Cognition: Neural Substrates and Genetic Influences reviews advances in extant imaging modalities and the application of brain stimulation techniques for improving mathematical learning. It goes on to explore the role genetics and environmental influences have in the development of math abilities and disabilities. Focusing on the neural substrates and genetic factors associated with both the typical and atypical development of mathematical thinking and learning, this second volume in the Mathematical Cognition and Learning series integrates the latest in innovative measures and methodological advances from the top researchers in the field.

Biologists have known for decades that many traits involved in competition for mates or other resources and that influence mate choice are exaggerated, and their expression is influenced by the individuals' ability to tolerate a variety of environmental and social stressors. Evolution of Vulnerability applies this concept of heightened sensitivity to humans for a host of physical, social, psychological, cognitive, and brain traits. By reframing the issue entirely, renowned evolutionary psychologist David C. Geary demonstrates this principle can be used to identify children, adolescents, or populations at risk for poor long-term outcomes and identify specific traits in each sex and at different points in development that are most easily disrupted by exposure to stressors. Evolution of Vulnerability begins by reviewing the expansive literature on traits predicted to show sex-specific sensitivity to environmental and social stressors, and details the implications for better assessing and understanding the consequences of exposure to these stressors. Next, the book reviews sexual selection-mate competition and choice-and the mechanisms involved in the evolution of condition dependent traits and the stressors that can undermine their development and expression, such as poor early nutrition and health, parasites, social stress, and exposure to man-made toxins. Then it reviews condition dependent traits (physical, behavioral, cognitive, and brain) in birds, fish, insects, and mammals to demonstrate the ubiquity of these traits in nature. The focus then turns to humans and covers sex-specific vulnerabilities in children and adults for physical traits, social behavior, psychological wellbeing, and brain and cognitive traits. The sensitivity of these traits is related to exposure to parasites, poor nutrition, social maltreatment, environmental toxins, chemotherapy, and Alzheimer's disease, among others. The book concludes with an implications chapter that outlines how to better assess vulnerabilities in children and adults and how to more fully understand how, why, and when in development some types of environmental and social stressors are particularly harmful to humans.

The first volume in this ground-breaking series focuses on the origins and early development of numerical cognition in non-human primates, lower vertebrates, human infants, and preschool children. The text will help readers understand the nature and complexity of these foundational quantitative concepts and skills along with evolutionary precursors and early developmental trajectories.

The fifth volume in the Mathematical Cognition and Learning series focuses on informal learning environments and other parental influences on numerical cognitive development and formal instructional interventions for improving mathematics learning and performance. The chapters cover the use of numerical play and games for improving foundational number knowledge as well as school math performance, the link between early math abilities and the approximate number system, and how families can help improve the early development of math skills. The book goes on to examine learning trajectories in early mathematics, the role of mathematical language in acquiring numeracy skills, evidence-based assessments of early math skills, approaches for intensifying early mathematics interventions, the use of analogies in mathematics instruction, schema-based diagrams for teaching ratios and proportions, the role of cognitive processes in treating mathematical learning difficulties, and addresses issues associated with intervention fadeout.

Language and Culture in Mathematical Cognition, First Edition focuses on the role of linguistic and cultural factors in math cognition and development. It covers a wide range of topics, including analogical mapping in numerical development, arithmetic fact retrieval in the bilingual brain, cross-cultural comparisons of mathematics achievement, the shaping of numerical processing by number word construction, the influence of Head Start programs, the mathematical skills of children with specific language impairments, the role of culture and language in creating associations between number and space, and electrophysiological studies of linguistic traces in core knowledge at the neural level.

Acquisition of Complex Arithmetic Skills and Higher-Order Mathematics Concepts focuses on typical and atypical learning of complex arithmetic skills and higher-order math concepts. As part of the series Mathematical Cognition and Learning, this volume covers recent advances in the understanding of children's developing competencies with whole-number arithmetic, fractions, and rational numbers. Each chapter covers these topics from multiple perspectives, including genetic disorders, cognition, instruction, and neural networks.

Now in a third edition, the authoritative classic text Male, Female evaluates both foundational and recent scholarship on the evolution of human sex differences, including how males and females differ in modern contexts. In comprehensive detail, David C. Geary describes how men and women differ based on evolutionary principles, how human sex differences are similar to those found in other species and how the expression of these differences is uniquely human. The principles of sexual selection—such as female choice and male-male competition—explain sex differences in parenting, mate choices, ways of competing for mates, social-political preferences, development, the brain, and cognition. Far from being one-sided in the nature-versus-nurture debate, Geary shows how an evolutionary framework can easily incorporate the influence of experience and cultural context on the development and expression of sex differences. Thoroughly updated and expanded, this third edition adds a chapter on sex differences that emerge in modern contexts, like occupational choices, variation in sexual orientation, gender identity, and relationships. Scholars from a wide range of sciences have much to learn from this monumental volume.