Lecture 5: Number Concept + Reading Flashcards
What is the number concept?
(Definition)
- This refers to mathematical skills such as counting, comparing and judging quantities and ability to do arithmetic operations (like addition, subtraction, multipication)
There are number of rules
- We follow when it comes to numbers
5 Counting Principles
Gelman and Gallistel (1978)
Proposed 5 principles that govern counting:
What are those 5?
- One-to-one principle
- Stable-order principle
- Cardinal principle
- Order irrelevance principle
- Abstraction principle
5 Counting Principles
Gelman and Gallistel (1978)
What 3 counting principles define the counting procedure? (define the counting process/define how we count)
- One-to-one principle
- Stable-order principle
- Cardinal principle
Which principle do you really have to master later to show how counting works?
- Cardinal principle
Counting Principle
One-to-one principle
(2)
- According to this principle, when counting a set of objects, each object must be counted once.
- Each item in this set are assigned one unique label or “counting word”.
Counting Principle
One-to-One
Example + Violation Error
- For example, counting people in a front row of a lecturer theatre saying 1 ,2 , 3 ,4.
- Violation of one-to-one principle is if you assign more than one “counting word/label” to a person in a front row.
Counting Principle
Stable order principle
- “Counting words”/labels/tags must be used in a set order.
Example of Stable-order principle
+ Violation Error
- For example, when counting a set of 3 objects using 1,2,3 is an example of the stable-order principle.
- A violation of the stable-order principle is counting these 3 sets of objects as 1,3,2. This is because these “counting words” are not assigned to the objects in the correct order.
Counting Principle
Cardinal Principle
- The “counting word”/label for the final object in a set denotes the total number of items of the whole set.
Counting Principle
Cardinal Principle
Example
(2)
- For example when counting 3 cats in a garden, they would count each one with ‘one’ , ‘two , ’three’. ‘Three’ is the last cat in that set. Therefore there are 3 cats in that garden.
- For example ‘two’ refers to sets of two entities in that group/set.
Counting Principle
Order-irrelvance
- This refers to the understanding that objects in a set can be tagged/labelled in any sequence as long as the other counting principles such as one-to-one , stable-order and cardinal principle is not violated.
Counting Principle
Order irrelevance
Example
(2)
- For example there is a set of 4 sweets on the table.
- An individual may count these sweets from left to right or from right to left. Regardless of the direction of counting, the individual’s counting results in the total of 4 sweets.
Counting Principle
Abstraction principle
Definition.
This refers to that these counting principles can be applied to any collection of tangible and intangible objects.
Counting Principle
Abstraction Principle
Example
For example, When a child understand this principle, they are able to appreciate to count intangible objects such as counting the number of happy thoughts they have or tangible objects such as the number of cars they have in their toy box.
What is abstraction principle not?
- It is not labelling ‘cat’ to a cat.
- They are called tags and not labels in principles
Children’s knowledge of these counting principles
- It is implicit knowledge of these counting principles
- They are unable to articulate this knowledge of the principles but are able to follow these counting knowledge
Implicit vs Innate knowledge
Bess
(2)
- Innate knowledge is knowledge you are born with
- Implicit knowledge (could be innate) but not necessarily, knowledge you can demonstrate in various ways but can’t articulate it → important when discussing about young children.
From the literature it is demonstrated that these 5 counting principles are attainable by
the age of 5
Some are achievable earlier by the age of 3.
Overall, it shows these principles are achieved around preschool age in which big changes in how they are understanding the counting principles
How can we test for the children’s knowledge of these counting principles?
(3)
- Test this indirectly
- Control for performance demands (tweaks in tests)
Error detection task
Gelman and Meck (1983)
They tested the 3 main counting principles of one-to-one, stable -order and cardinal principles using an error detection task on a sample of…
3-5-year-olds
Gelman and Meck (1983)
In this error detection task:
puppet task paradigm
(3)
- In this task, the child is observing the counting performance of a puppet’s performance.
- The child’s ability to detect errors in the puppet’s application of one-to-one, stable order and cardinal counting principles in the puppet’s performance is measured.
- In this task, the children do not have to count themselves which elevates the possible restriction performance demands.
Gelman & Meck (1983)
One-to-One principle
Using puppet paradigm
- 3 types of trial
- The one-to-one principle study involved the puppet counting a row of red and blue objects.
Gelman & Meck (1983)
One-to-One principle
Using puppet paradigm
Correct trial
The correct trial is in which the puppet is counting the objects in the row correctly by counting each object in the set once.
Gelman & Meck (1983)
One-to-One principle
Using puppet paradigm
In-error trial
In the in-error trial, the puppet either skipped or double-counted objects in that row.
Gelman & Meck (1983)
One-to-One principle
Using puppet paradigm
Pseudo-error trial + example (2)
- In the pseudo error trial, the puppet when they are counting the items in a set in an unfamiliar way but not necessarily violating the counting rules
- For example, the puppet may begin to count in the middle of the set of objects and continue until the end of the row before returning to the beginning of the row for the remaining items that need to be counted.
Gelam & Meck (1983)
Stable-order principle
- The puppets counted small trinkets that varied in size and colour in this stable-order principle study.
- They had 2 types of trials in the stable-order principle condition
Gelam & Meck (1983)
Stable-order principle
In-error trial + correct
Correct trial
In-error
The convential order of two items in a set was reversed e.g 1,3,2,4;
Using a randomly ordered list 3,1,4,2
A list where one or more tags are skipped 1,3,4
Gelman & Meck (1983)
Cardinality
Instructions + Set size
(3)
- Same procedure as the stable-order experiment however its instructions was somewhat different as children were asked to indicate whether the puppet gave the right answer after its finished counting and the children were encouraged to tell the puppet what the right answer was.
- 3 and 4 year olds.
Gelman & Meck (1983)
Cardinality: 2 types of trial
Correct
In-error trial
- Correct (explain the principle)
- In-error
- (nth value +1 like 1,2,3,4 I have 5 items)
- less than N like 1,2,3,4, I have 3 items
- or attributes the final tag of the sequence to an irrelevant feature of an object such as 1,2,3,4 I have blue items)
Gelam & Meck (1983)
Results
Specific percentages
(Remember bold)
- Showed child’s performance was highly accurate on correct trials
- High accuracy on incorrect trials
Gelam & Meck (1983)
Results
Pseudo error and set size
- Pseudo-errors detected as peculiar but not incorrect
- Even able to articulate to experimenter why in some cases
- Show understanding of order-irrelevance (implicit, not articulate)
Gelam & Meck (1983)
Results
Older children + set size.
- Older children performed better, but.
- Success rates not affected by set size (how far they count) - even for young children.
Gelam & Meck (1983)
Conclusions
- Children as young as 3 can understand and demonstrate this knowledge of the 3 main principles, even though they can not articulate them
- Understanding demonstrated even in set sizes that are too big for children to count in.
- Children therefore show implicit knowledge of these principles.
Baroody (1984)
Not sure about Gelman’s and Meck (1983)’s conclusions
What did Baroody want to investigate/test
- Order-irrelevance and cardinality in 5-7-year-olds specifically.