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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 20, 2026

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

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

Number-concept acquisition and general vocabulary development.

James Negen¹, Barbara W Sarnecka

¹Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92617-5100, USA. jnegen@uci.edu

Child Development

|July 19, 2012

Summary

Children’s number word knowledge strongly correlates with their general vocabulary size. This finding suggests that a larger vocabulary may aid in learning number words, challenging prior research.

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Last Updated: May 20, 2026

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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition

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

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

Published on: February 8, 2019

Area of Science:

Cognitive Development
Developmental Psychology
Language Acquisition

Background:

The relationship between number-concept acquisition and language development is debated.
Previous research suggested number concepts develop independently of language, relying on visuo-spatial skills.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the correlation between number-word knowledge and general vocabulary in young children.
To re-evaluate previous findings on the relationship between numerical cognition and language development.

Main Methods:

Experiments 1 and 2 assessed number-word knowledge and vocabulary in 59 children aged 30-60 months.
Experiment 3 analyzed data to understand discrepancies with prior studies.

Main Results:

A significant positive correlation was observed between number-word knowledge and vocabulary.
This correlation remained significant regardless of the child's age, differing from previous findings.
Analysis in Experiment 3 indicated that data analysis methods influenced prior results.

Conclusions:

Language development, specifically nominal vocabulary size, appears to support number-concept acquisition.
The findings challenge theories positing that number concepts are primarily scaffolded by visuo-spatial development.
Early language skills may play a more integral role in numerical cognition than previously understood.