Children’s Acquisition of a Novel Mathematical Relation from Images of Simple Versus Rich Objects

Abstract The present study examined children’s learning and transfer of a non-symbolic mathematical relation from displays of either rich, colorful, familiar objects or simple, generic objects. The results demonstrate that 5-year-old children who learned with rich displays were less able to transfer relational knowledge to displays involving novel objects than those who learned with simple displays. An examination of 5-year-olds’ eye gaze behaviour in a same/different judgment task suggests that images of rich objects result in less efficient behaviour than images of simple objects. Participants looked longer at object features and were slower responding on questions with rich objects than on questions with simple objects. Furthermore, participants who learned with rich objects were either less accurate or slower on subsequent questions than their counterparts who learned with simple objects. These findings suggest that for young children, rich, colorful objects may hinder transfer of a simple non-symbolic mathematical relation by pulling attention to salient object features.