Number Processing and Attention in Infancy
What do we know about infants' numerical sense?
Enumeration, number sense, counting, and visual perception of quantity are central cognitive abilities that are critically important for many cognitive tasks, and for effective interactions with the physical world. We us such skills to determine which is the larger of two pieces of cake, which of two subway cars is less crowded (so we know which to step into), and that all the children in a school group are accounted for. Moreover, in our increasingly technical world, success in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) disciplines requires strong mathematical abilities. Because early number ability predicts later school performance, deeper understanding of the emergence of and early development of numerical processing may be important for addressing this educational and societal need. Finally, deficits in number ability have been documented in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Williams Syndrome, Fragile X, and Downs Syndrome. Understanding the origins and early development of number processing, therefore, will have a wide ranging impact on our understanding of cognitive processes, and has the potential to help identify and intervene with atypically developing populations.
From an early age, infants are sensitive to differences in number. There is some evidence of this ability even in newborn infants, and several studies have shown such sensitivity in infants 6 to 7 months of age. Despite this interest in numerical processing, little work has been focused on understanding how infants’ numerical processing interacts with, is influenced by, and contributes to other cognitive processes. We argue that work in this area has suffered from the “Humpty Dumpty problem” that is common in the study of infant cognitive development. In general, programs of research aim to understand isolated cognitive abilities, documenting how those abilities develop, ignoring the interactions among cognitive abilities. However, cognitive abilities do not operate in isolation, and the emergence of new abilities reflects the development of multiple interacting skills, processes, and abilities. Although the traditional approach has yielded a large body of findings about infants’ numerical abilities, it is time to uncover more in depth about how numerical processing develops by considering the interaction and co-development of multiple abilities.
Our current work focuses on learning what infants know about number and quantity. Can young infants see a difference in two things and three things, for example? At what ages? And what other abilities does this numerical knowledge rely on? Currently we are conducting studies asking 1) what numerical differences can infants detect? and 2) is that ability related to their visual attention or memory?
Enumeration, number sense, counting, and visual perception of quantity are central cognitive abilities that are critically important for many cognitive tasks, and for effective interactions with the physical world. We us such skills to determine which is the larger of two pieces of cake, which of two subway cars is less crowded (so we know which to step into), and that all the children in a school group are accounted for. Moreover, in our increasingly technical world, success in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) disciplines requires strong mathematical abilities. Because early number ability predicts later school performance, deeper understanding of the emergence of and early development of numerical processing may be important for addressing this educational and societal need. Finally, deficits in number ability have been documented in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Williams Syndrome, Fragile X, and Downs Syndrome. Understanding the origins and early development of number processing, therefore, will have a wide ranging impact on our understanding of cognitive processes, and has the potential to help identify and intervene with atypically developing populations.
From an early age, infants are sensitive to differences in number. There is some evidence of this ability even in newborn infants, and several studies have shown such sensitivity in infants 6 to 7 months of age. Despite this interest in numerical processing, little work has been focused on understanding how infants’ numerical processing interacts with, is influenced by, and contributes to other cognitive processes. We argue that work in this area has suffered from the “Humpty Dumpty problem” that is common in the study of infant cognitive development. In general, programs of research aim to understand isolated cognitive abilities, documenting how those abilities develop, ignoring the interactions among cognitive abilities. However, cognitive abilities do not operate in isolation, and the emergence of new abilities reflects the development of multiple interacting skills, processes, and abilities. Although the traditional approach has yielded a large body of findings about infants’ numerical abilities, it is time to uncover more in depth about how numerical processing develops by considering the interaction and co-development of multiple abilities.
Our current work focuses on learning what infants know about number and quantity. Can young infants see a difference in two things and three things, for example? At what ages? And what other abilities does this numerical knowledge rely on? Currently we are conducting studies asking 1) what numerical differences can infants detect? and 2) is that ability related to their visual attention or memory?
