Recognition of small numbers in subset knowers Cardinal knowledge in early childhood

Abstract

Previous research suggests that subset-knowers have an approximate understanding of small numbers. However, it is still unclear exactly what subset-knowers understand about small numbers. To investigate this further, we tested 133 participants, ages 2.6–4 years, on a newly developed eye-tracking task targeting cardinal recognition. Participants were presented with two sets differing in cardinality (1–4 items) and asked to find a specific cardinality. Our main finding showed that on a group level, subset-knowers could identify all presented targets at rates above chance, further supporting that subset-knowers understand several of the basic principles of small numbers. Exploratory analyses tentatively suggest that 1-knowers could identify the targets 1 and 2, but struggled when the target was 3 and 4, whereas 2-knowers and above could identify all targets at rates above chance. This might tentatively suggest that subset-knowers have an approximate understanding of numbers that is just (i.e. +1) above their current knower level. We discuss the implications of these results at length.