The psychophysics of number, time, and space

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In many ways, human minds closely resemble those of other animals. Consider, for example, our perception of time: much like we can estimate approximately how long ago we purchased an old jug of milk, Western Scrub-Jays can cache their food and later judge how much time has passed and whether the food is likely to have spoiled. Unlike other animals, however, humans can also use language to reason and communicate about the world precisely and symbolically, allowing us to represent time discretely through clocks, calendars, and milk expiration dates. Specifying how the core cognitive abilities we share with other animals interface with language, and how this interface guides the development of human-specific abilities, is a fundamental challenge to our understanding of the human mind as a unique biological system.