3-226 - Number Knowledge Before, During, and After Children’s Mastery of Counting

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children from around the world learn to count by going through the same sequence of number-knower stages, though they vary in the age at which they reach different milestones. This symposium presents behavioral, looking-time, and computational modeling studies that shed light into (1) what toddlers know before they enter the first number-knower stages, (2) how children transition between these stages, and (3) what knowledge is fragile after children reach the final number-knower stage.

Paper one investigates toddlers’ understanding of number words using violation-of-expectation and preferential-looking paradigms. The authors find that toddlers have partial knowledge about the meaning of small number words at an earlier age than previously believed. Paper two presents a computational model of how children learn to count using a unique Give-N dataset of over 1500 participants from around the world, including American, Japanese, Saudi Arabic, and Tsimane’ children. The authors find that variability in number-word learning is best explained by the rate of effective learning instances in each culture, rather than by differences in inductive biases. Paper three presents evidence that children’s understanding of the counting algorithm continues to develop after they can successfully count. The authors find that early counters may recognize that arbitrary ordered lists can be used to determine set sizes, but they do not understand the invariance of the counting algorithm and they recount a set when it is not necessary. The discussant will talk about the implications of these new findings on our understanding of how children acquire number.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Madison Flowers, Yale University

Discussant

• David Barner, University of California, San Diego

Individual Presentations

• Early knowledge of small number word meanings in toddlers - Presenting Author: Anna Shusterman, Wesleyan University; Non-Presenting Author: Pierina Cheung, Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education; Non-Presenting Author: Katie Wagner, UCSD; Non-Presenting Author: Sona Kumar, Boston University; Non-Presenting Author: David Barner, University of California, San Diego

• A Cross-Linguistic Bayesian Data Analysis of Number Word Learning - Presenting Author: Francis Mollica, University of Rochester; Non-Presenting Author: Julian Jara-Ettinger, Yale University; Non-Presenting Author: Steven Piantadosi, University of California, Berkeley

• Children’s Understanding of the Counting Algorithm After Mastering Its Usage - Presenting Author: Madison Flowers, Yale University; Non-Presenting Author: Lindsay Stoner, University of Pennsylvania; Non-Presenting Author: Julian Jara-Ettinger, Yale University