Estimates and Estimate-Based Inferences in Young Children

form. One such difficulty is the inadequacy of verbal instructions and questions for eliciting from the child the most effective use of numerical concepts which it might already have at its disposal (p. 113). Considerable evidence has accumulated supporting the pivotal role played by language in the development of higher thought processes (Dietze, 1955; Kendler & Kendler, 1961; Luria, 1961; Reese, 1962), It seems that by the ages of 5-7 years language plays an important role in higher cognitive processes (White, 1965). Therefore, language assumes the dual role of methodological and theoretical determinant in the study of -higher thought. One immediate implication of this dual role is that until the methodological component of language is effectively controlled, the theoretical impact of language development will be difficult to assess. In an effort to limit the effects of language on the methodological aspects of this study, the stimuli and response materials were nonverbal. However, the instruction set was verbal so that some linguistic-based variation could have occurred. The necessity of controlling for instructional set effects and response learning has been well documented (Mandler, 1967; Bruner & Rodriquez, 1953). A training sequence in which all subjects had to demonstrate their understanding of the instructions and response materials was used to control for response learning and instruction variables. Two studies were conducted to investigate children’s ability to make estimates and inferences. In Study I, three groups of children at CA (chronological age) levels 5, 6, and 7 years were tested individually to determine the development of the ability to make quantitative estimates. In Study II, the hypotheses, based on the results of Study I, were tested to investigate the development of the ability to make inference judgments and to explore the relation between performance and certain factors which affect performance in children at CA 6, 7, and 8 years.