SPATIAL ENUMERATION WITHOUT COUNTING.

A precursor of counting, the ability to point out each member of a set once and only once, was examined in 58 children aged 211-4 years. Performance was positively correlated with age and with ability to count and was negatively correlated with the number of items (3-9) in the set. The effect of arrangement of items depended in part on their similarity. This performance is thought not only to underlie counting but also to measure attention span. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]