TY  - JOUR
A1  - Stapel, Janny C.
A1  - Hunnius, Sabine
A1  - Bekkering, Harold
A1  - Lindemann, Oliver
T1  - The development of numerosity estimation: Evidence for a linear number representation early in life
JF  - Journal of cognitive psychology
N2  - Several studies investigating the development of approximate number representations used the number-to-position task and reported evidence for a shift from a logarithmic to a linear representation of numerical magnitude with increasing age. However, this interpretation as well as the number-to-position method itself has been questioned recently. The current study tested 5- and 8-year-old children on a newly established numerosity production task to examine developmental changes in number representations and to test the idea of a representational shift. Modelling of the children's numerical estimations revealed that responses of the 8-year-old children approximate a simple positive linear relation between estimated and actual numbers. Interestingly, however, the estimations of the 5-year-old children were best described by a bilinear model reflecting a relatively accurate linear representation of small numbers and no apparent magnitude knowledge for large numbers. Taken together, our findings provide no support for a shift of mental representations from a logarithmic to a linear metric but rather suggest that the range of number words which are appropriately conceptualised and represented by linear analogue magnitude codes expands during development.
KW  - Numerical estimation
KW  - Number cognition
KW  - Development
KW  - Bilinear models
KW  - Number representation
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2014.995668
SN  - 2044-5911
SN  - 2044-592X
VL  - 27
IS  - 4
SP  - 400
EP  - 412
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  -