The Development and Assessment of Early Cardinal-Number Concepts

Number-recognition tasks, such as the how-many task, involve set-to-word mapping, and number-creation tasks, such as the give-n task, entail word-to-set mapping. The present study involved comparing sixty 3-year-olds’ performance on the two tasks with collections of one to three items over three time points about 3 weeks apart. Inconsistent with the sparse evidence indicating equivalent task performance, an omnibus test indicated that success differed significantly by task (and set size but not by time). A follow-up analysis indicated that the hypothesis that success emerges first on the how-many task was generally significantly superior to the hypothesis of simultaneous development. It further indicated this how-many-first hypothesis was superior to a give-n-first hypothesis for sets of three. A theoretical implication is that set-to-word mapping appears to develop before word-to-set mapping, especially in the case of three. A methodological implication is that the give-n task may underestimate a key aspect of children’s cardinal understanding of small numbers. Another is that the traditional give-n, which requires checking an initial response by 1-to-1 counting, confounds pre-counting and counting competencies. Preparation of this report was supported by the Institute of Education Science [grant number R305A150243] and the National Science Foundation [grant numbers 1621470 & 2201939] to the first author. The opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position, policy, or endorsement of the Institute of Education Science or the National Science Foundation. reviewed acceptedVersion