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Title:Do children use language structure to discover the recursive rules of counting?
Authors:ID Schneider, Rose M., University of California, San Diego (Author)
ID Sullivan, Jessica, Skidmore College (Author)
ID Marušič, Franc, Univerza v Novi Gorici (Author)
ID Žaucer, Rok, Univerza v Novi Gorici (Author)
ID Biswas, Priyanka, University of California, San Diego (Author)
ID Mišmaš, Petra, Univerza v Novi Gorici (Author)
ID Plesničar, Vesna, Univerza v Novi Gorici (Author)
ID Barner, David, University of California, San Diego (Author)
Files: This document has no files that are freely available to the public. This document may have a physical copy in the library of the organization, check the status via COBISS. Link is opened in a new window
Language:English
Work type:Not categorized
Typology:1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:UNG - University of Nova Gorica
Abstract:We test the hypothesis that children acquire knowledge of the successor function — a foundational principle stating that every natural number n has a successor n + 1 — by learning the productive linguistic rules that govern verbal counting. Previous studies report that speakers of languages with less complex count list morphology have greater counting and mathematical knowledge at earlier ages in comparison to speakers of more complex languages (e.g., Miller & Stigler, 1987). Here, we tested whether differences in count list transparency affected children’s acquisition of the successor function in three languages with relatively transparent count lists (Cantonese, Slovenian, and English) and two languages with relatively opaque count lists (Hindi and Gujarati). We measured 3.5- to 6.5-year-old children’s mastery of their count list’s recursive structure with two tasks assessing productive counting, which we then related to a measure of successor function knowledge. While the more opaque languages were associated with lower counting proficiency and successor function task performance in comparison to the more transparent languages, a unique within-language analytic approach revealed a robust relationship between measures of productive counting and successor knowledge in almost every language. We conclude that learning productive rules of counting is a critical step in acquiring knowledge of recursive successor function across languages, and that the timeline for this learning varies as a function of count list transparency.
Keywords:Cross-linguistic Count list Successor function Natural number concepts Number acquisition Conceptual development
Publication version:Version of Record
Year of publishing:2020
Number of pages:21
Numbering:117
PID:20.500.12556/RUNG-4946-16a1ee88-edf8-effc-ebb4-8d4c877cd36d New window
COBISS.SI-ID:5520635 New window
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2019.101263 New window
NUK URN:URN:SI:UNG:REP:GRRURLZE
Publication date in RUNG:05.01.2020
Views:3206
Downloads:0
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Record is a part of a journal

Title:Cognitive Psychology
Publisher:Elsevier
Year of publishing:2020

Document is financed by a project

Funder:ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
Project number:P6-0382
Name:Teoretično in eksperimentalno jezikoslovje

Licences

License:CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Link:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Description:The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.
Licensing start date:02.01.2020

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