THE PARTS AND WHOLES OF ARITHMETIC STORY PROBLEMS - DEVELOPING KNOWLEDGE IN THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

A study of 4- and 5-year-old children's arithmetic problem solving pro vided evidence for the early development of knowledge about part-whole relations. The study compared children's performance on initial-unkno wn and final-unknown problems involving the addition or subtraction of a single item. Four-year-olds responded in a directionally appropriat e way to the final-unknown problems but not to the corresponding initi al-unknown ones, supporting the idea that their problem solving is con strained by the temporal sequence of events in a story problem. By 5 y ears of age, children were able to give directionality appropriate res ponses to both the final-unknown and the initial-unknown problems.