title: Crossing the divide: infants discriminate small from large numerosities.
abstract: Although young infants have repeatedly demonstrated successful numerosity discrimination across large sets when the number of items in the sets changes twofold (E. M. Brannon, S. Abbott, & D. J. Lutz, 2004; J. N. Wood & E. S. Spelke, 2005; F. Xu & E. S. Spelke, 2000), they consistently fail to discriminate a twofold change in number when one set is large and the other is small (<4 items; F. Feigenson, S. Carey, & M. Hauser, 2002; F. Xu, 2003). It has been theorized that this failure reflects an incompatibility in representational systems for small and large sets. The authors investigated the ability of 7-month-old infants to compare small and large sets over a variety of conditions. Results reveal that infants can successfully discriminate small from large sets when given a fourfold change, but not a twofold change, in number. The implications of these results are discussed in light of current theories of number representation.
authors.affiliation: Duke University Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Durham, NC 27708, USA. scordes@duke.edu
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cordes
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Brannon
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology