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The developmental change of infants' comparison between small and large sets
Yi Mou1, Xi Yao1, Jieling Wu2
1Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Child Development
|April 21, 2026
Summary
Infants develop the ability to compare different quantities around 15 months, but precise numerical comparisons remain challenging even at 24 months. This approximate number processing is independent of language development.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Developmental Psychology
- Numerical Cognition
Background:
- Infants possess abilities to distinguish between small (≤3) and large (>3) numerosities.
- Challenges arise in cross-boundary numerical comparisons, such as distinguishing 1 from 4.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of overcoming cross-boundary numerical comparison difficulties in infants.
- To determine the age at which infants can successfully perform specific cross-boundary comparisons.
- To explore the relationship between numerical comparison abilities and language development.
Main Methods:
- A forced-choice task was administered to 312 Chinese infants aged 11-24 months.
- Infants' performance on comparing different numerosities, including cross-boundary ratios, was assessed.
Main Results:
- Success in comparing 1 vs. 4 (1:4 ratio) emerged at 15 months.
- Older infants demonstrated success with larger ratios (2 vs. 8) and smaller ratios (2 vs. 6; 1:3).
- Infants at 24 months still struggled with a 1:2 ratio (2 vs. 4), and performance was not correlated with vocabulary size.
Conclusions:
- Infant approximate number processing engages nonverbal mechanisms for both small and large numerosities.
- Cross-boundary numerical comparison development is distinct from language acquisition.
- These findings provide insights into the early development of numerical cognition.
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