Measuring Children’s Grasp of Set Combining With an Exact Enumeration Task

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Student Cognition, Attitudes, and Learning in Math

Abstract

Number skills learned in early childhood are the building blocks for acquiring mathematical competence and fluency. The current study investigates the development of children’s exact enumeration skills in early elementary school, and whether these skills are foundational for learning symbolic math. Children in kindergarten through third grade enumerated unstructured and grouped arrays of 1-8 dots, and enumeration latencies were recorded. Older children derive are faster to enumerate grouped as opposed to structured arrays. Furthermore, enumeration latencies for grouped arrays predict individual differences in symbolic arithmetic skill. Results indicate that exact enumeration of grouped arrays isolates a cognitive ability that is strongly linked to symbolic arithmetic, suggesting that understanding number composition is crucial for the development of fluent math skills.

Authors

• Gillian Sarah Starkey, Vanderbilt University

• Bruce McCandliss, Vanderbilt University