Kindergarteners use partial-knowledge heuristics such as digit recognition and the word hundred to interpret multidigit numerals¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2014 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Kindergarteners performed above chance on items solvable by digit recognition or knowing that hundred signals more digits, but at chance on items requiring place-by-place mapping. → Mix 2014

Evidence¶

Mix 2014¶

Mix, Kelly S., Prather, Richard W., Smith, Linda B., & Stockton, Jerri DaSha. (2014). Young Children's Interpretation of Multidigit Number Names: From Emerging Competence to Mastery. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12197

q3 · i? · causal · r?

Item-level analysis of Experiment 1's 20 Which is x? numerals items showed "kindergarteners performed randomly on the first 6 items in the table, but performed significantly above chance on the rest." Items requiring accurate place-by-place mapping (e.g., 350 vs. 305) were most difficult.

"kindergarteners performed randomly on the first 6 items in the table, but performed significantly above chance on the rest"

Mix 2014 (2)¶

Mix, Kelly S., Prather, Richard W., Smith, Linda B., & Stockton, Jerri DaSha. (2014). Young Children's Interpretation of Multidigit Number Names: From Emerging Competence to Mastery. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12197

q3 · i? · causal · r2

The article infers strategies from item demands: some items were solvable by recognizing individual written digits, others by knowing "the word hundred in the number name signaled more digits," while "Items that required accurate mapping, place by place" remained hardest through first grade.

"Items that required accurate mapping, place by place, and could not be solved using any of the partial knowledge heuristics (e.g., 350 vs. 305; 2,843 vs. 2,483) were among the most difficult for kindergarten students"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Children from kindergarten through second grade perform significantly above chance on simple multidigit numeral identification and comparison tasks — related
• Children as young as 3½ years perform significantly above chance identifying and comparing multidigit numerals — related
• Multidigit numeral interpretation improves with age, with second graders outperforming first graders and kindergarteners — related
• Children perform better with written numerals than with base-10 blocks or dot arrays on multidigit tasks — related
• Symbols-only training improved kindergarteners' performance on difficult place value items, but base-10 blocks training did not — related