Abstract: The paper presents a selective, historical review of psychologicalstudies on the nature of mathematical ability, covering research on psy-chometric, cognitive, and cognitive-developmental traditions in psychol-ogy. The review reveals several questions common to investigations inthese sub-disciplines. The authors argue that methods should be borrowedfrom each of these areas, new information-processing methods shouldalso be created to understand the nature of mathematical ability and itsdevelopment.

Key words: NULL