2-173 - How do Young Children Learn the Meanings of Number Words? New Insights from Training Studies

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children struggle to learn the precise meanings of number words: “three” and “four”, for example, are typically not acquired until around age 3 or older. Why are number words difficult to learn? Prior research has largely focused on the conceptual factors that may contribute to this difficulty. In our symposium, we explored a different possibility: children who are taught number words may not always receive clear-cut evidence for their intended meanings. This possibility suggested that training conditions that provided children with better evidence for identifying numbers might enhance learning.

All four presentations attempted to teach young children number words via exposure to carefully constructed observations. In the first presentation, 21-month-olds learned the word “four” when given training trials that contrasted, for example, 4 ducks with either 3 or 5 ducks. In the second presentation, 2- to 5-year-olds were better able to learn the next word in their number list when trained with sets that contrasted number and held type of object constant (e.g., 2 triangles and 3 triangles) than when trained with sets that did the reverse (e.g., 2 triangles and 2 squares). In the third presentation, one-knowers learned the word “three” more easily when introduced as a proper noun as opposed to an adjective. In the fourth presentation, Spanish-speaking 5-year-olds rapidly learned the conjunction rule for complex number words (e.g., “thirty-five”) and used it to deduce arithmetic facts. Together, these training studies thus provide important new insights into how children learn—and can be helped to learn—number words.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Renée Baillargeon, University of Illinois

Individual Presentations

• 21-month-olds rapidly learn the meaning of "Four" when provided with appropriate contrastive evidence - Presenting Author: Yi Lin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Renée Baillargeon, University of Illinois; Dan Hyde, University of Illinois

• The effects of context and labeling on children's number learning - Presenting Author: Dominic J. Gibson, University of Chicago; Talia Berkowitz, University of Chicago; Susan Levine, University of Chicago

• Training number words as proper nouns - Presenting Author: Katharine Tillman, UC San Diego; Katie Wagner, University of California, San Diego; David Barner, University of California San Diego

• Five-year-olds use syntax to learn 72+ arithmetic facts in under five minutes - Presenting Author: Mathieu Le Corre, Universidad Autónoma de Morelos, Centro de Investigación Transdisciplinar en Psicología; Aldo Mauricio Ferrari Belmont, Universidad Autónoma de Morelos, Centro de Investigación Transdisciplinar en Psicología