Momo's day at the aquarium

3 to 5 year olds

In this study your child will draw some pictures and play some games using the keyboard. You will need 10 sheets of plain paper, a dark marker, and a towel to cover the touchpad (if you are using a laptop). Your child will meet Momo, who is an Alien visiting an aquarium. Your child will draw 7 pictures of animals that Momo sees (the extra sheets are in case they want to start over). Your child will also play a matching game where they try to get exactly one present for each family member Momo has, and a counting game where they help Momo buy the right number of different kinds of toys to fit in the spaceship.

An exact understanding of number is something that takes children many years to fully acquire. One step along the way is to understand how things can match exactly. Previous research using matching games found that children often have a hard time matching quantities exactly. But the matching games in these studies might not be quite natural and intuitive to very young children. Here we ask whether children demonstrate intuitive understanding of exact quantities more easily in a drawing game. We also ask how children’s quantity matching abilities relate to their counting skills, as measured in the counting game. This study will help us understand how children understand exact equality in different contexts, and will more generally help us better understand the emergence and development of mathematical concepts.

20 minutes

We will provide a $5 USD Amazon.com gift card for eligible participants. We will send you 1 gift card within 1 week of your first eligible participation. To be eligible for compensation we ask that you 1) provide a valid consent video (we will show you how!), 2) your child must be in the age range specified above and, 3) your child must be present during the recorded videos. Your child does not need to finish the entire study in order to be eligible for compensation.