| Abstract: | 30 3-yr-olds, 30 4-yr-olds, and 30 5-yr-olds were given problems relevant to 2 aspects of number understanding. Six problems involved "matching tasks," whereby Ss were asked to match the number of dots. This tested whether Ss understood number as representing an amount. Eight problems required Ss to choose a series of lengths or numbers that were arranged in sequential order, which tested whether they understood the "order" component of number. A scalogram analysis was performed to discover the sequence with which these numerical abilities were acquired. There was a valid scale in which "amount" abilities appeared before "order" abilities. This suggests that children understand number as an absolute amount before they understand it as part of a progressive sequence, in contradiction to the ordinal theory of number. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
