Cognitive and Linguistic Bases for Mathematical Development

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All mathematical ideas must be expressed in some notation, and the most basic notation of all is the system of number names a language uses. When children learn to count, they must develop basic mathematical concepts at the same time that they figure out the rules of the particular system of number names they are learning. Because languages vary in the way they represent numbers, it is possible to study how linguistic and cultural variation affects the development of mathematical competence. This research will study relations between the linguistic structure of number-naming systems and children's developing mastery of counting and basic arithmetic. The research will produce a model of children's representation of number and how it is affected by the structure of number-naming systems by looking at how children learn to count in Chinese and English. Some experiments will examine the origins of counting in very young children (2.5 years old), to see whether this fundamental mathematical skill varies before the point where the number systems begin to differ. Also included will be a longitudinal study of counting, to describe whether impasses and plateaus in learning to count differ across the two countries. Other experiments will examine how specific features of the number systems affect children's acquisition of particular concepts. For example, Chinese forms ordinal numbers (such as first, second, third, etc.( by using a regular prefix (di') in front of the cardinal number, in contrast to the irregular system of ordinal numbers that English has (first, second, third, fourth, etc.). The research will examine the role this linguistic structure plays in children's learning the conceptual distinction between ordinal and cardinal numbers. Finally, the research will include a study on the development of mental arithmetic in Chinese and American children. Previous research shows that Chinese children outperform their American peers on a variety of mathematical skills. This research should allow the precise description of which aspects of arithmetic skill account for these substantial differences. The poor performance of American children on a wide array of mathematical tasks makes understanding the basis for the advantages Chinese children show a question of obvious practical significance. These questions are of basic scientific interest as well, because an adequate model of the development of mathematical competence must be able to account for the performance of both groups of children. Understanding the cognitive bases for large differences between American and Chinese children is an essential step in figuring out what the implications of these differences are for understanding and promoting cognitive development.