Fast Comprehension of embedded geometrical Primitives and Rules in human Adults and Preschoolers

International audienceStudies of sequence learning have outlined one possible mechanism by which complex mental representations are constructed out of simpler primitives: the human ability to extract complex nested structures from sequential inputs.Experiments in infants, preschoolers, and adults without access to education have demonstrated the existence of innate “core knowledge” for space, endowing humans with spontaneous intuitions of geometry.The question therefore arises whether a capacity for the internal representation and manipulation of nested sequences also underlies the acquisition of mathematics.We propose to formalize the human sensitivity to mathematical rules through a “language of thought” that allows the formation of comple