We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Krakow Seminar on Mathematical Cognition, a new monthly event series hosted by the Mathematical Cognition and Learning Lab.
The seminar is designed for anyone interested in the broad scope of topics related to mathematical cognition—from the neural mechanisms of numerical processing and the evolutionary roots of these skills to the science of mathematical learning and effective educational interventions. The meetings will take place every second Tuesday of the month, held in a hybrid format: in-person at the MCLL laboratory and online.
For our inaugural session on Tuesday, January 13th, we are honored to welcome Mariagrazia Ranzini (University of Padova), who will join us online to discuss how mathematical expertise shapes our mental representation of numbers.
EDIT: We know there were some problems with joining, please use this corrected link:
I am an experimental psychologist, and my research focuses on the mental representation of numbers and quantities, within the theoretical framework of embodied cognition. I study numerical processing in relation to attention, memory, action, expertise, and synaesthesia. I obtained my PhD in Psychology at the University of Pavia. During my doctoral studies, I conducted research in collaboration with the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) on the role of mathematical expertise in the representation and processing of numbers. I have worked for some years as postdoctoral researcher in Italy (University of Bologna; University of Padova) and abroad (from 2012 to 2017 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles). Since 2022 I have been working at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padova (associate professor from 2025). My current research interests include embodied number processing with a focus on individual differences. I obtained a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship for a project on the neural correlates of number processing and hand actions in stroke patients and healthy adults (GRINP, 2020-2023). I have also obtained a PRIN project from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (NumAct, started in 2023): the project focuses on embodied number processing form a developmental perspective, studying children, adults, and the elderly. I commonly use behavioural research methods (including eye-tracking and hand kinematics), and neuroimaging techniques (e.g., fNIRS) to test cognitive theories. I am against any kind of war.
In this talk, I will present prior and current evidence suggesting that higher mathematical competence is linked to more independent numerical processing, with less reliance on other cognitive functions such as spatial cognition or sensorimotor processes. In the first part of the talk, I will present the results of research I conducted during my doctoral studies on the role of mathematical expertise in number processing. In this research, mathematical experts (students from STEM degree or PhD programs) were compared to non-experts (students from non-STEM degree and PhD programs) in the amplitude of magnitude, distance, SNARC, and other classical number-space interaction effects. Overall, the results suggest that mathematical expert participants might be less sensitive to number-space interactions. In the second part of the talk, I will focus on the role of mathematical expertise in embodied number processing. I will present the results from two studies (GRINP project) investigating the interplay between number and hand action in adults using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In one study, the results showed that the neural overlap between numerical and motor tasks in the left superior parietal lobule negatively correlated with calculation performance. In a second study, brain activity at rest was recorded from a frontoparietal numerical network, and stronger functional connectivity was associated with lower accuracy in calculation tasks. Taken together, these findings support the hypothesis that greater mathematical competence contribute in shaping a more independent numerical system, and they highlight the importance of considering individual differences in mathematical expertise when studying numerical cognition.
