Preschoolers' Dot Enumeration Abilities Are Markers of Their Arithmetic Competence

The abilities to enumerate small sets of items (e.g., dots) and to compare magnitudes are claimed to be indexes of core numerical competences that scaffold early math development. Insofar as this is correct, these abilities may be diagnostic markers of math competence in preschoolers. However, unlike magnitude comparison abilities, little research has examined preschoolers' ability to enumerate small sets, or its significance for emerging math abilities; which is surprising since dot enumeration is a marker of school-aged children's math competence. It is nevertheless possible that general cognitive functions (working memory, response inhibition in particular) are associated with preschoolers' math abilities and underlie nascent dot enumeration abilities. We investigated whether preschoolers' dot enumeration abilities predict their non-verbal arithmetic ability, over and above the influence of working memory and response inhibition. Two measures of dot enumeration ability were examined—inverse efficiency and paradigm specific (response time profiles) measures—to determine which has the better diagnostic utility as a marker of math competence. Seventy-eight 42-to-57 month-olds completed dot enumeration, working memory, response inhibition, and non-verbal addition and subtraction tasks. Dot enumeration efficiency predicted arithmetic ability over and above the influence of general cognitive functions. While dot enumeration efficiency was a better predictor of arithmetic ability than paradigm specific response time profiles; the response time profile displaying the smallest subitizing range and steepest subitizing slope, also displayed poor addition abilities, suggesting a weak subitizing profile may have diagnostic significance in preschoolers. Overall, the findings support the claim that dot enumeration abilities and general cognitive functions are markers of preschoolers' math ability.