Monster Math!

For 5- to 7-year-olds. This study uses purple and blue dots, so it may be difficult for children with red-green colour blindness.

Your child will watch as two sets of balls move behind a box one at a time. Then, a cup will scoop up some of the balls, and they will be shown two new sets of balls, and asked which of the new sets has the same number of purple and blue balls as the cup. Halfway through, your child will be told how close they are to helping the monster win the teddy bear, and after all the trials are complete, the monster will win the teddy bear!

Children have the ability to mentally represent large amounts of objects in their minds, and compare these representations together. This ability plays an important role in children’s mathematical reasoning abilities and in their everyday life. We are interested in further understanding this ability by studying whether children can also add these estimations together.

15 minutes

Families will receive one entry for a draw to win a $50 Amazon.com gift card for every child who participates in the study and is in the age range specified above. Children must be visible in the consent video in order to be eligible to be entered into the draw. Children can only participate in this study once. The draw will be ran for every 50 participants, so every participant will have a 1/50 chance of winning, and winners will be notified within 4 weeks of participating.