Assessing children's understanding of one‐to‐one correspondence

Brainerd's (1973) cardination test is supposed to assess children's understanding of one-to-one correspondence independently of their counting ability. Children's errors in this test could result from difficulty in executing a pairing strategy rather than defective understanding. This was tested by comparing performance on the cardination test displays with performance on such displays with guidelines added to make pairing easier. Both 5-year-olds and 7-year-olds took part. Guidelines helped both age groups; the 7-year-olds more than the 5-year-olds. There were very marked differences between the age groups.