Does the coordination of verbal and motor information explain the development of counting in children?

Counting is often considered to be the coordination of two actions: saying the number-words and pointing to each object. We report three experiments t o test the hypothesis that this coordination requires the use of the centra l executive (A. D. Baddeley, 1990), and that the cost of coordination decre ases with age. Participants were 5- and 9-year-old children and adults. At all ages tested, the manipulation of the difficulty of each component affec ted counting performance but did not make coordination more difficult. Thes e results suggest that, at least from the age 5, counting is a procedure in which the control of coordination is nor attention demanding. (C) 2001 Aca demic Press.