Crossing the divide: infants discriminate small from large numerosities

Dev Psychol. 2009 Nov;45(6):1583-94. doi: 10.1037/a0015666.

Abstract

Although young infants have repeatedly demonstrated successful numerosity discrimination across large sets when the number of items in the sets changes twofold (E. M. Brannon, S. Abbott, & D. J. Lutz, 2004; J. N. Wood & E. S. Spelke, 2005; F. Xu & E. S. Spelke, 2000), they consistently fail to discriminate a twofold change in number when one set is large and the other is small (<4 items; F. Feigenson, S. Carey, & M. Hauser, 2002; F. Xu, 2003). It has been theorized that this failure reflects an incompatibility in representational systems for small and large sets. The authors investigated the ability of 7-month-old infants to compare small and large sets over a variety of conditions. Results reveal that infants can successfully discriminate small from large sets when given a fourfold change, but not a twofold change, in number. The implications of these results are discussed in light of current theories of number representation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Attention / physiology
  • Child Development
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Concept Formation / physiology*
  • Discrimination, Psychological / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Problem Solving / physiology*
  • Space Perception / physiology
  • Visual Perception / physiology