Ordinal Instinct: A Neurocognitive Perspective and Methodological Issues

The current review focuses on the hypothesized ordinal instinct. It is suggested here that order, much like color, is a basic feature of the environment to which humans appear wired to attend by instinctively extracting approximate ordinal relations. Specifically, I propose a novel outlook that argues for the existence of a neurocognitive system designed to evaluate ordinal relationships. This ordinal instinct is tuned to optimally pick up ordinal information by implicitly and unconsciously capturing sequential regularities in the surrounding world. Importantly, I put forth the claim that human numerical intelligence significantly relies on the ordinal instinct through biological development and experience. The current review aims to (1) discuss the neurocognitive systems involved in ordinal processing, (2) describe how the ordinal instinct develops (both typically and atypically) and becomes accessible to other systems, and (3) speculate whether the ordinal instinct can be the antecedent of higher numerical abilities.