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Can young infants add and subtract?
A Wakeley1, S Rivera, J Langer
1School of Education, University of California, Berkeley 94720-1690, USA. awakeley@socrates.berkeley.edu
Child Development
|February 24, 2001
Summary
Five-month-old infants did not show reliable arithmetic skills in looking time tests. These findings suggest infant numerical competence is not robust and develops gradually.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Developmental Psychology
- Infant Cognition
Background:
- Early research suggested infants possess arithmetic abilities.
- Wynn's procedure is a common method for testing infant numerical competence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the robustness of arithmetic competence in 5-month-old infants.
- To examine infants' reactions to simple addition and subtraction transformations.
Main Methods:
- Replication of Wynn's procedure with 68 infants aged 5 months.
- Testing looking time responses to correct and incorrect arithmetic outcomes (1+1, 2-1, 3-1).
- Inclusion of both imprecise and precise calculation tasks.
Main Results:
- No systematic evidence of adding or subtracting abilities was found in the infants tested.
- Results contrasted with previous findings by Wynn.
- Observed variability in infant reactions to arithmetic displays.
Conclusions:
- Infants' numerical competence is not robust at 5 months.
- Arithmetic skills develop gradually throughout infancy and early childhood.
- Variability in findings suggests a need for further research into infant numerical cognition.