THE MEASUREMENT OF MEANING OF INDETERMINATE NUMBER WORDS IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN: I

Abstract

In this study preschool children were tested with a new method for the measurement of meaning. This method differs from usual ones such as questionnaire methods or paper and pencil test methods, in that it operationally determines the meaning of a word through actions. It may also be emphasized that this can be applicable even to children as young as 4 years in age because of the simple procedure of the method. It only requires each child to take out ‘many’ or ‘few’ etc. of small, thin ‘ohajikis’ (which are 1. 5cm in diameter) from a container and put them it a tray.
The problem of this study is this: How scores (which are equal to the actual numbers of ‘ohajikis’ taken out) increase or decrease according to the variations of the conditions.
The conditions are as follows: 1) background numbers contained in containers ; 100 or 200 or 300 ‘ohajikis’ are prepared as backgound numbers. 2) words used ; Five words of ‘hijoh ni ohi’,‘Ohku mo sukunaku mo nai’,‘Sukunai’,‘Hijoh ni sukunai’ were selected in this test. Here ‘Ohi’ means ‘many’,‘Sukunai’ ‘few’, and ‘Hijoh ni’ means ‘very’, 3) ages of subjects ; 4 years old, 5 years old and 6 years old all preschool children, participated in the test.
The main findings are summarized as follows:
1) Children do not necessarily receive the meanings of the words as ‘Hijoh ni ohi’ > ‘Ohi’ > ‘Ohku mo sukunaku mo nai’ > ‘Sukunai’ > ‘Hijoh ni sukunai’.
It, however, seems certain from Table 2 and Figures (which are given in the Japanese text) that they understand meaning of ‘Ohi’ and ‘Sukunai’ correctly,‘Ohi’ being directly opposite word to ‘Sukunai’. It seems also that the meaning of ‘Ohku mo sukunaku mo nai’ is correctly accepted, although this word is unfamiliar for these young children.
2) In general, the actual number of ‘ohajikis’ taken increases as more ‘ohajikis’ are made available in the container, but when referdd to each age group, the effect of increment in background numbers do not necessarily result in the increment of all scores. Scores are regarded as increased only in the cases of ‘Hijoh ni ohi’,‘Ohi’ and ‘Ohkn mo sukunaku mo nai’. It is recognized, at the same time, that the rate of increase in background numbers is not equal to that of scores. 3) Scores of ‘Hijoh ni ohi’,‘Ohi’ and ‘Ohku mo sukunaku mo nai’ tend to increase with age. This suggests that development of indeterminate number concept has a close relationship with that of determinate number concept. 4) With the exceptions of ‘Hijoh ni ohi’ and ‘Ohi’ and ‘Hijoh ni sukunai’ and ‘Sukunai’, the older the child, the more be seems to differentiate between the meanings of words.