AN OPERATIONAL DETERMINATION OF THE MEANING OF QUANTITATIVE WORDS IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

TSUKIHARU KUMAE

doi:10.4992/psycholres1954.2.106

TSUKIHARU KUMAE

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Volume 2 (1960) Issue 3 Pages 106-110

DOI https://doi.org/10.4992/psycholres1954.2.106

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Released: February 24, 2009 [Advance Publication] Released: - received: June 15, 1960 corrected: - accepted: -
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Date of correction: February 24, 2009 Reason for correction: - Correction: ABSTRACT Details: Wrong : Previous studies on the measurement of meaning were all concerned with children of school-going age and upward. In this study, however, preschool children were tested with an operational method for the measurement of the meanings of quantitative words. It only requires each child to take out ‘many’ or ‘a few’ etc. of beads (which are 1.5 cm in diameter) from a container and put them on a tray. Because of this simple procedure it was available to preschool children. Stimulus words selected for this study were ‘very many of’, ‘many of’, ‘a few of’ and ‘a very few of’.
It was pointed out from Table 2 that generally speaking, scores (which are equal to the actual number taken) of ‘very many of’ and ‘many of’ were very low as compared with the background number. Scores for these two words, however, tend to increase with age. These facts suggest a close relationship between the development of a determinate number concept and that of an indeterminate number concept. At the same time, it is readily recognized from Table 2 that the difference between the lowest and the highest scores becomes greater with age. The author takes the view that differentiation is found here. By differentiation is meant gradual discrimination between the meanings of the words with age. The older the child, the more clearly he discriminates between the meanings of the words.
Figures show that the scores increase as more beads are made available in the container, but the values decline rapidly when expressed as percentages of the background number.
It was also concluded that children of 4 years did not necessarily seem to understand the meanings of these quntitative words correctly, even though they use them in their daily life situations.

Date of correction: February 24, 2009 Reason for correction: - Correction: CITATION Details: Wrong : COHEN, J., DEARNLEY, E. J., & HANSEL, C. E. M. A quantitative study of meaning. Brit. J. educ. Psychol., 1958, 28, 144-148.
KOURA, I., KUMAE, T., & EUJIWARA, S. Basic studies on the measurement of meaning. Read at the 1st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology, 1959
KUMAE, T. Studies on the measurement of meanings of quantitative words (In preparation).
PRATT, K. C. Indeterminate number concepts: 1. Classification and relation to determinate numbers J. genet. Psychol., 1948, 72, 201-219.

Right : COHEN, J., DEARNLEY, E. J., & HANSEL, C. E. M. A quantitative study of meaning. Brit. J. educ. Psychol., 1958, 28, 144-148.
KOURA, I., KUMAE, T., & FUJIWARA, S. Basic studies on the measurement of meaning. Read at the 1st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology, 1959
KUMAE, T. Studies on the measurement of meanings of quantitative words (In preparation).
PRATT, K. C. Indeterminate number concepts: 1. Classification and relation to determinate numbers. J. genet. Psychol., 1948, 72, 201-219.

Date of correction: February 24, 2009 Reason for correction: - Correction: PDF FILE Details: -

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