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Children's mappings between number words and the approximate number system
Darko Odic1, Mathieu Le Corre2, Justin Halberda3
1University of British Columbia, Canada.
Cognition
|February 28, 2015
Summary
Children develop the ability to map number words to approximate quantities before they can translate approximate quantities into number words. This suggests number representation development is not initially bidirectional.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Numerical Cognition
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Humans possess both exact (language-based) and approximate (approximate number system - ANS) number representations.
- Adults can map between these systems in both directions: ANS-to-Word and Word-to-ANS.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the developmental trajectory of these bidirectional mappings in early childhood.
- Determine if one mapping direction becomes functional before the other.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments involving 2-5 year old children.
- ANS-to-Word task: Children provided verbal estimates for approximate visual stimuli.
- Word-to-ANS task: Children generated approximate tapping sequences for verbal number requests.
Main Results:
- Children under 4 years old struggled with the ANS-to-Word task, even after acquiring the Cardinality Principle.
- Children under 4 years old successfully performed the Word-to-ANS task before mastering the Cardinality Principle.
- Mapping accuracy continued to develop beyond initial formation.
Conclusions:
- The mapping between the approximate number system and verbal number representations is not functionally bidirectional in early development.
- The Word-to-ANS mapping is established earlier than the ANS-to-Word mapping.
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