About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 4. Cognitive Processes

Abstract

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Introduction.
Previous research on English-speaking children on numerical cognition shows that while two-year-olds can recite numerals, they don’t fully grasp exact set sizes or become CP-knowers (Cardinal Principle Knower) until around age four. Before that, they respond randomly to larger quantities. However, few studies have examined how Mandarin-speaking children develop from subset-knowers to CP-knowers. Mandarin’s lack of singular/plural noun distinctions may delay understanding the number word for "one," according to the morphological bootstrapping hypothesis. Thus, this study investigates age, gender, knower levels, and rote counting ability among Mandarin-speaking children, aiming to explore multiple aspects of their numerical cognition development.

Methods.
84 Mandarin-speaking children were tested in China (mean age = 42.05 months; female = 37, male = 47). All participants were tested on a battery of verbal and non-verbal numerical cognition tasks that have been validated in English-speaking children, including the Ascending and Descending Quantity Elicitation Task, Give-N Task, One-to-One Correspondence Task, Nuts-in-a-Can Task, and Rote Counting Task. All participants were videotaped during the experiment, which were coded by properly-trained research assistants. Children’s linguistic representations of number words were determined by the Rote Counting task, and children’s number-knower levels by the Give-N Task.

Results.
For ascending & descending tasks, both the English and Mandarin group were significantly worse in descending tasks. (Mandarin: t = -1.86, p = 0.033; English: t = -2.25, p = 0.013). For one-to-one correspondence tasks, the English group was significantly worse in one-to-one orthogonal tasks, while the Mandarin group did not show the pattern (Mandarin: t = -1.02, p = 0.15; English: t = -2.23 p = 0.015).For the Nut-in-a-can Task, English and Mandarin-speaking children did not show significant differences (t = -0.62, p = 0.531).

Conclusions.
This study found that Mandarin- and English-speaking children performed similarly in both verbal and non-verbal tasks, suggesting that some aspects of numerical cognition development are likely universal across languages and cultures. The results revealed that age was a stronger predictor of children's performance compared to the number-knower level and gender. Furthermore, children’s ability to recite the number list was not a predictor of their performance; thus relying solely on rote counting to assess children’s numerical cognition may not provide an accurate picture of their abilities.

Author information

Author	Role
Miss Yuexin Li, Columbia University Teaching College	Presenting author
Pangzhongyuan Pei, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Nina Lin, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Langxu Jin, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Yintao Kang, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Luxin Zhang, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Huanyi Ye, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Wenjun Wu, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Yuanyuan Chang, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Jean Ee Tang, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author
Peter Gordon, Teachers College, Columbia University	Non-presenting author

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