Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 22, 2026

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
07:31

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

Infants use different mechanisms to make small and large number ordinal judgments

Kristy vanMarle1

  • 1Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. vanmarlek@missouri.edu

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|May 22, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Infants may use separate systems for small and large quantities. This study shows infants struggle to compare small and large number sets, supporting distinct numerical representation mechanisms.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive development
  • Infant cognition
  • Numerical cognition

Background:

  • Infants may possess distinct numerical representation systems: object tracking for small quantities (<4) and analog magnitude for larger quantities (≥4).
  • Previous evidence is indirect, necessitating direct testing of this two-mechanism hypothesis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To directly investigate the hypothesis that infants utilize separate mechanisms for representing small and large numerosities.
  • To determine if these distinct numerical representations are comparable.

Main Methods:

  • An ordinal choice task was employed with 10- to 12-month-old infants.
  • Infants were presented with choices between hidden sets of food items representing different numerosities.

Main Results:

  • Infants successfully discriminated between numerosities within small sets (1 vs. 2) and within large sets (4 vs. 8).
  • Performance dropped to chance levels when comparing a small set to a large set (e.g., 2 vs. 4), even with large ratios (2 vs. 8).

Conclusions:

  • The findings provide direct support for the two-mechanism hypothesis of numerical representation in infants.
  • Numerical representations from the object tracking system and the analog magnitude mechanism appear to be incommensurable, meaning they cannot be directly compared or translated between each other.

More Related Videos

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization05:35

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

Related Concept Videos

Ordinal Level of Measurement00:55

Ordinal Level of Measurement

The way a set of data is measured is called its level of measurement. Correct statistical procedures depend on a researcher being familiar with levels of measurement. For analysis, data are classified into four levels of measurement—nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
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...
Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development01:17

Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development

During Piaget's concrete operational stage, from ages 7 to 11, children exhibit a marked increase in logical thinking skills, specifically in relation to tangible, real-world events. This stage is characterized by the development of several essential cognitive concepts, including conservation, reversibility, and classification, all of which support the child's evolving capacity for structured thought.
Conservation and Constancy of Quantity
A significant cognitive milestone in the concrete...
Nominal Level of Measurement00:56

Nominal Level of Measurement

The way a set of data is measured is called its level of measurement. Correct statistical procedures depend on a researcher being familiar with levels of measurement. Not every statistical operation can be used with every set of data. For analysis, data are classified into four levels of measurement—nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
The data that cannot be measured but can be grouped into categories fall under the nominal level of measurement. Data that is measured using a nominal scale is...
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

The preoperational stage, the second of Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development, spans approximately ages 2 to 7 and is characterized by the emergence of symbolic thinking. During this stage, children use language, images, and symbols to represent objects and concepts, enabling them to engage in imaginative and pretend play. This symbolic thinking supports children's ability to perform make-believe actions, such as imagining a broom as a horse or their hand as a phone, blending...
Ranks01:02

Ranks

Unlike parametric methods, nonparametric statistics are ideal for nominal and ordinal data, requiring fewer assumptions about the population's nature or distribution. This makes nonparametric methods easier to apply and interpret, as they do not depend on parameters like mean or standard deviation. One common approach in nonparametric analysis is to sort data according to a specific criterion. For instance, we might arrange weather data from hottest to coldest days in a month or rank cities...