Successfulness in Counting According to Age, Set Size and Arrangement in the Set

Škrljac, Nikolina. (2006). Successfulness in Counting According to Age, Set Size and Arrangement in the Set. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Vlahović-Štetić, Vesna].

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Abstract

The purpose of this survey was to find out how children's successfulness in counting changes with age, and how the set size and spatial arrangement of elements in the set influence the successfulness in counting. Three age groups were included in the research: younger (4 and 5 years), medium (6 years) and older (7 and 8 years); furthermore, the children counted sets of three different sizes: small (6 or 7 elements), medium (13 or 14) and large (20 or 21), in which the elements were arranged in three different spatial arrangements: row, triangle, circle or at random. Children of all age groups counted the sets of all sizes and in all four spatial arrangements. It was assumed that the children would statistically observed significantly differ in their successfulness in counting according to their age; furthermore that the successfulness in counting would statistically observed significantly differ according to different set sizes, as well as according to different spatial arrangements in the set. The function of common influence of the specified variables was also taken into consideration. The results indicate that the children become more successful in counting with age, that successfulness in counting decreases with enlargement of the number of elements in the set, and that the children make more mistakes in counting elements arranged in all spatial arrangements then row, especially when the elements are arranged in a circle or at random. The findings that the children make more mistakes in counting elements arranged in different spatial arrangements than row is considered to contribute to the opinion that the children simply forgot which elements they have already counted, and which not, respectively that they did not think of using strategies that help for correct counting, such as marking the element from which they started counting or separating elements that are counted from those that still need to be counted.

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