There is an ongoing debate concerning how numbers acquire numerical meaning. On the one hand, it has been argued that symbols acquire meaning via a mapping to external numerosities as represented by the approximate number system (ANS). On the other hand, it has been proposed that the initial mapping of small numerosities to the corresponding number words and the knowledge of the properties of counting list, especially the order relation between symbols, lead to the understanding of the exact numerical magnitude associated with numerical symbols. In the present study, we directly compared these two hypotheses in a group of preschool children who could proficiently count (most of the children were cardinal principle knowers). We used a numerosity estimation task to assess whether children have created a mapping between the ANS and the counting list (i.e., ANS-to-word mapping). Children also completed a direction task to assess their knowledge of the directional property of the counting list. That is, adding one item to a set leads to he next number word in the sequence (i.e., successor knowledge) whereas removing one item leads to the preceding number word (i.e., predecessor knowledge). Similarly, we used a visual order task to assess the knowledge that successive and preceding numbers occupy specific spatial positions on the visual number line (i.e., preceding: [?], [13], [14]; successive: [12], [13], [?]). Finally, children's performance in comparing the magnitude of number words and Arabic numbers indexed the knowledge of exact symbolic numerical magnitude. Approximately half of the children in our sample have created a mapping between the ANS and the counting list. Most of the children mastered the successor knowledge whereas few of them could master the predecessor knowledge. Children revealed a strong tendency to respond with the successive number in the counting list even when an item was removed from a set or the name of the preceding number on the number line was asked. Crucially, we found evidence that both the mastering of the predecessor knowledge and the ability to name the preceding number in the number line relate to the performance in number comparison tasks. Conversely, there was moderate/anecdotal evidence for a relation between the ANS-to-word mapping and number comparison skills. Non-rote access to the number sequence relates to knowledge of the exact magnitude associated with numerical symbols, beyond the mastering of the cardinality principle and domain-general factors.

关于数字如何获得数字含义的争论一直在进行。一方面，有人认为符号是通过映射到由近似数字系统（ANS）表示的外部数字来获得含义的。另一方面，有人提出，将小数量的词初始映射到相应的数字词以及对计数列表的属性（尤其是符号之间的顺序关系）的了解，可以使人们理解与数字相关的精确数值幅度。符号。在本研究中，我们在一组可以熟练计数的学龄前儿童中直接比较了这两个假设（大多数儿童是基本原理的知识者）。我们使用了一个数字估计任务来评估儿童是否在ANS和计数列表之间创建了映射（即ANS到单词的映射）。孩子们还完成了指导任务，以评估他们对点票清单的方向性知识的了解。即，将一个项目添加到集合中会导致序列中的下一个数字词（即，后继知识），而删除一个项目会导致序列中的前一个数字词（即，前辈知识）。类似地，我们使用视觉顺序任务来评估以下知识：连续和先前的数字在视觉数字线上占据特定的空间位置（即，先前：[？]，[13]，[14]；连续：[12]，[ 13]，[？]）。最后，儿童在比较数字单词和阿拉伯数字的幅度方面的表现索引了确切的符号数字幅度的知识。在我们的样本中，大约有一半的孩子已经在ANS和计数列表之间创建了映射。大多数孩子掌握了继承者的知识，而很少有孩子能掌握继承者的知识。即使从集合中删除某项物品或询问数字行中先前编号的名称，孩子们仍表现出强烈的倾向对计数列表中的连续编号做出响应。至关重要的是，我们发现有证据表明，对先前知识的掌握以及在数字行中命名前面的数字的能力都与数字比较任务的性能有关。相反，有中度/轶事证据表明ANS到单词的映射与数字比较技能之间存在关联。