How Do Children Learn the Number Five?

For 3- to 4.5-year-old English-speaking children

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you.

In this study, your child will play two games about numbers. In the first game, they will see several stars go into an empty box and then part or all of them come out. They will be asked whether all the stars have come out. In the second game, they will be asked to put certain numbers of objects onto a plate. To do this, we will need your help to prepare ten identical smallish objects (such as beads or quarters) and a plate.

As adults, we can track any number of objects exactly. We can easily tell a set of 9 balls is different from a set of 10 balls by counting the two sets, breaking them into small sets, or putting them into one-to-one correspondence. However, this ability does not come for free. Research has shown that infants and young children can only track up to three or four objects exactly. When in development do children come to track large exact sets and what supports their tracking ability? We aim to address these questions in a case study on the number five.

30 minutes

As thanks for your participation, you will receive a $5 Amazon.com gift card code via email within 24 hours after participation. We provide one gift card code per child. To be eligible for the compensation, the child will need to be in the age range for our study and be visible during the study.