Most Preschoolers don't know Most

Recently, researchers interested in the nature and origins of semantic representations haveinvestigated an especially informative case study: The acquisition of the word most – aquantifier which by all accounts demands a sophisticated 2nd order logic, and whichtherefore poses an interesting challenge to theories of language acquisition. According tosome reports, children acquire most as early as three years of age, suggesting that it doesnot draw on cardinal representations of quantity (contrary to some formal accounts),since adult-like knowledge of counting emerges later in development. Other studies,however, have provided evidence that children acquire most much later – possibly by theage of 6 or 7 – thereby drawing this logic into question. Here we explore this issue byconducting a series of experiments that probed children’s knowledge of most in differentways. We conclude that children do not acquire an adult-like meaning for most until verylate in development – around the age of 6 – and that certain behaviors which appearconsistent with earlier knowledge are better explained by children’s well-attested bias toselect larger sets (a “more” bias), especially when tested with unfamiliar words.