Children's Performance Labeling Set Sizes without Counting Mediates the Effect of Counting Practice on Understanding of Cardinality

This study investigated the role of labeling set sizes in the development of children’s understanding of cardinality. Increasing children’s ability to label set sizes without counting may accelerate development by promoting analogical reasoning (Mix et al., 2012), or it may delay development by decreasing the immediate need for an abstract understanding of cardinality (Piantadosi et al., 2012). 107 preschoolers were randomly assigned to: (a) count-and-label, wherein children spent six weeks learning to both count and label sets; (b) label-first, wherein children spent three weeks learning to label set sizes without counting before three weeks of count-and-label practice; (c) print referencing control. Both counting conditions improved understanding of cardinality indirectly by increasing children’s ability to label set sizes without counting. There was an additional direct effect of the count-and-label condition on children’s understanding, highlighting multiple pathways of development in the acquisition of number concepts.