Toddlers' Spontaneous Attention to Number and Verbal Number Quantification

The dissertation reports on two studies. The first study systematically examined whether and how age, collection size, and heterogeneity of the objects affect toddlers' tendency to focus on number. Each of 37 participants between the ages of 2 and 4.25 years was shown 36 different collections of 2, 3, and 4 items that were homogeneous, semihomogeneous, or heterogeneous. Age, collection size, and collection make-up were found to have significant effects on children's tendency to attend to number, which is inconsistent with the nativists' hypothesis of an innate cardinal concept of three. The second study was conducted to further clarify this issue and to include data on children's verbal number performance. The results revealed that SAN with two and three was significantly correlated with a child's preferred verbal quantification strategy and with the child's ability to verbally label a collection without counting, respectively.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Elementary Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Li, Xia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Baroody, Arthur J.

• Psychology, Developmental

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3392191

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/80120