NUMBER UNDERSTANDING IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

Summary. Judgments of relative number made by 4‐year‐old children were assessed by asking them to count and compare two collections of counters under various conditions. Counters were presented either in heaps, to be counted one at a time into opaque boxes, or to be placed on top of dots in rows. In the experimental series a visual display of the number sequence was provided, and the appropriate number marked after each collection had been counted. To control for the length cues in the visual display, a further test was carried out using a visual display with no numbers on it. A condition with no visual display was also used. Performance was significantly more accurate when numbers and numerical dot patterns were visible and when the counters were counted into boxes rather than being arranged into rows. This suggests that children's poor performance on relative number judgment tasks may be due not to a poor understanding of number but rather to memory factors and to over‐reliance on perceptual cues. Aiding their memory of the number sequence and the numbers counted, and removing perceptual cues, enabled them to use their counting skills effectively.