Children’s Interpretation of “Before” And “After” For Consecutive and Non-Consecutive Numbers and Events

Abstract

When learning the integers, children must learn that number words are in a stable order and that this order is tied to magnitude. In previous work, U.S. English-speaking 5- and 6-year-old children’s interpretation of ordinal vocabulary (after, before) to compare numbers in the count list was restricted to consecutive numbers (e.g. 6 is after 5, but 7 is not), despite readily applying magnitude vocabulary (i.e. both 6 and 7 are bigger than 5). In the current study, we investigate whether this narrow interpretation of before/after is a more general feature of ordinal comparisons by comparing it to children’s interpretation of before/after in temporal event sequences (Experiment 1, N = 120) and to adults’ interpretation of before/after for both numerical and temporal sequences (Experiment 2, N = 120). First, we replicate the original finding: U.S. 5- and 6-year-old children are more likely to endorse using before/after for consecutive numbers than nonconsecutive numbers. Second, we do not find the same pattern in children’s judgments of event sequences, suggesting that it is caused by a feature of the count list that is not shared by event sequences. Third, we find that U.S. adults predominantly endorse before/after for both consecutive and nonconsecutive comparisons, though there is some variation consistent with children’s responding. These findings suggest that the narrow interpretation of before and after in U.S. children’s numerical judgments is not due to their interpretation of ordinality more generally, and instead may be tied to a specific feature of numerical sequences.

Michelle Hurst

Assistant Professor

My research interests include mathematical development and variations in performance across contexts.