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Science 6 October 1967:
Vol. 158. no. 3797, pp. 141 - 142
DOI: 10.1126/science.158.3797.141
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Articles

Cognitive Capacity of Very Young Children

Jacques Mehler 1 and Thomas G. Bever 2

1 Department of Psychology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
2 Department of Psychology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University, Cambridge

Children between 2 years, 6 months old and 3 years, 2 months old correctly discriminate the relative number of objects in two rows; between 3 years, 2 months and 4 years, 6 months they indicate a longer row with fewer objects to have "more"; after 4 years, 6 months they again discriminate correctly. The discriminative ability of the younger children shows that the logical capacity for cognitive operations exists earlier than previously acknowledged.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Perception of numbers by human infants.
P Starkey and R. Cooper Jr (1980)
Science 210, 1033-1035
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Book Reviews: Gelman, R. and Galistell, C.H. The Child's Understanding of Numbers. Harvard University Press..
U. A. Easley Jr. (1980)
Educational Researcher 9, 19-20
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Book Reviews: R. Gelman and C.H. Galistell, The Child's Understanding of Number, Harvard University Press, 1978.
U.A. Easley Jr (1979)
Educational Researcher 8, 16-18
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Education of Retarded Children: A Review for Physicians.
S. R. Forness (1974)
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 127, 237-242
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1: Learning and Instructional Sequence.
R. M. Gagne (1973)
Review of Research in Education 1, 3-33
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Quantification, Conservation, and Nativism.
J. Piaget (1968)
Science 162, 976-979
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Reply by J. Mehler and T. G. Bever.
(1968)
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Cognitive Capacities of Young Children: A Replication.
H. beilin (1968)
Science 162, 920-921
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What Children Do in Spite of What They Know.
T. G. Bever, J. Mehler, J. Epstein, and H. Beilin (1968)
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