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Representation of the cardinality principle: early conception of error in a counterfactual test.

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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>10/01/2000
<mark>Journal</mark>Cognition
Issue number1
Volume74
Number of pages19
Pages (from-to)71-89
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

There is debate over how the integration of non-verbal quantifying and verbal counting relates to the representation of number principles. A stringent representational test would be one in which a child obeyed a number principle where it ran counter to a characteristic procedure. We devised a test relying on the uniqueness principle for using evidence from a miscount in inferring a counterfactual cardinal number. All the 5-year-olds passed, as did half the preschoolers. Subtests probed associated number-skills. We suggest that a crucial preschool step is to start conceptualising error by categorising relations between counting and miscounting. That step is taken at a similar age to passing a representational theory of mind test but the two were uncorrelated.