CHILDREN DISCOVER ADDITION MORE EASILY AND FASTER THAN DELETION

Kindergarten and second grade children discovered items added to pictures more often and faster than items deleted from pictures. In Experiments 1a and 1b children experienced either four addition problems then four deletion problems, or four deletion problems then four addition problems. The problems were presented with pairs of pictures containing animals, children, adults, and things. Addition problems had an item added to the second picture; deletion problems had an item deleted from the second picture. In Experiment 2, children in one condition were instructed to name the important objects in the first picture of each problem. In another condition children were given a list of the important objects in the first picture of each problem by the experimenter. Control groups were not asked to create a list, nor given a list of the important objects. Children in the condition in which they named the objects performed superiorly to the children in the other conditions.