Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
Six does not just mean a lot: preschoolers see number words as specific
Barbara W Sarnecka1, Susan A Gelman
1University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109, USA. sarnecka@umich.edu
Abstract:
This paper examines what children believe about unmapped number words - those number words whose exact meanings children have not yet learned. In Study 1, 31 children (ages 2-10 to 4-2) judged that the application of five and six changes when numerosity changes, although they did not know that equal sets must have the same number word. In Study 2, 15 children (ages 2-5 to 3-6) judged that six plus more is no longer six, but that a lot plus more is still a lot. Findings support the hypothesis that children treat number words as referring to specific, unique numerosities even before they know exactly which numerosity each word refers to.
Related Concept Videos
Levels of Organization
Ordinal Level of Measurement
Data measured using an ordinal scale are similar to nominal scale data, but there is one major difference. The ordinal scale data can be ordered. An example of ordinal scale data is a list of the top five national parks in the...
Language Development
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development
Conservation and Constancy of Quantity
A significant cognitive milestone in the concrete...
Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development
Abstract Reasoning and Hypothetical-Deductive Thinking
Unlike the concrete operational...
Arithmetic Sequences

