ABSTRACT
This chapter has two objectives. The first is to demonstrate the methodological interest of segmentating sequences of observational data and analyzing how they chain in the microgenetic construction of numerical and protonumerical procedures. The second is the application of microgenetic analysis to numerical representations. The general psychological framework is the structural approach to the ontogenesis of number (stage level markers, filiation, and connected constructions; Piaget & Szeminska, 1941) and the principles of genetic epistemology. The analysis of numerical microgenesis is specifically situated within the context of the study of representation, as formulated in cognitivist developmental psychology (Cellérier & Inhelder, 1991). Representation is defined as the organizational framework of knowledge activation in models. This knowledge is made meaningful through its specification in context and is oriented through the sequencing of procedures.
