[MATHLINK] ManyNumbers has received grant funding from NSF!

[Elizabeth Gunderson]

Dear colleagues,


We are excited to announce that the ManyNumbers project has been funded by the National Science Foundation! The project, officially titled “Collaborative Research: A Multi-Lab Investigation of the Conceptual Foundations of Early Number Development”, is being funded by a 4-year grant from the NSF Division on Research in Learning (DRL).


We are thrilled that more than 130 labs, including labs and participants from 28 U.S. states and 27 countries, have already signed on to collect data as part of this project.


What is the project all about? Briefly, the project aims to examine the conceptual foundations of number knowledge in early childhood in two Foundational Studies (see below). In addition, we plan to facilitate Exploratory collaborations among participating sites that supplement these questions with additional culturally-relevant tests of language, cognition, and math skills, to expand the diversity and reach of research on early numeracy. For more details, you can read the grant proposal in the ManyNumbers OSF document archive<https://osf.io/e4xb7/>.


Foundation 1: Number Word Learning will examine whether children’s early number word meanings are supported by the analog magnitude system (AMS) or object tracking system (OTS), and characterize variability in number word learning and AMS acuity across labs, countries, language groups, and SES (key methods: 2-5-year-olds, Give-N task, Panamath, highest count task).


Foundation 2: Small Set Representations will examine capacity limits of infants’ non-verbal representations of small sets, characterize individual and developmental differences in these representations, and test relations to number word knowledge (key methods: 20-29-month-olds, manual search task, ordinal choice task).


How can I get involved? To continue receiving email updates and to indicate your lab’s interest in participating in data collection in 2024, please fill out this short google form<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdh8kKK8rvQaOe70nMQlu7_VnanD6Tub7IAPByvo5fFejOsLQ/viewform?usp=sf_link> (note that you do not need to fill this out if you already provided a letter of support for the grant proposal). You can also follow @ManyNumbers1 on Twitter and visit the new ManyNumbers website<https://www.manynumbers.org/home>.


What happens next? Our first step will be to hire three postdocs and a staff member (hiring details to follow). Then, the first 1-2 years of the grant will be devoted to building infrastructure and creating and piloting scalable training materials for all study protocols. We anticipate that participating labs will begin data collection no earlier than January 2024 (estimated start of data collection is between January-September 2024). Please stay tuned for additional communications and details.


Feel free to email me with any questions!


Best,


Liz Gunderson (on behalf of the ManyNumbers leadership team)


Who is eligible to contribute to data collection? Research labs with experience conducting human-subjects research with 1- to 5-year-olds.


What are the benefits to participating labs?

- Contributions to science!

- Authorship on published reports (each lab may add up to two authors - e.g., a PI and a trainee).

- Live meet-ups at conferences to discuss best practices.

- Opportunities for trainees to participate in conference workshops, and to present their contributions at conferences.

- The ability to propose Exploratory projects that use ManyNumbers data supplemented by your own methods and designs, and carried out in collaboration with other participating sites.

- Virtual training sessions on study procedures, and a computerized procedure for running tasks.

- Funding for participant reimbursement.


What are the expectations for participating labs? Participating labs can collect data for Foundation 1, Foundation 2, or both. We expect more labs to be able to participate in Foundation 1 (2- to 5-year-olds) than Foundation 2 (20-29-month-olds). We will ask that each participating lab:

- Attend in-person and/or virtual training sessions.

- Recruit and test at least 24 child participants.

- Provide a videotaped walk-through of their study procedures.

- We anticipate that participating labs will begin data collection no earlier than January 2024 (estimated January-September 2024).



ManyNumbers document archive: https://osf.io/e4xb7/


ManyNumbers website: https://www.manynumbers.org/home


The ManyNumbers leadership team includes: Liz Gunderson (Temple), Melissa Libertus (U of Pittsburgh), Kristy van Marle (U of Missouri), Melissa Kibbe (Boston University), Lisa Feigenson (Hopkins), Dan Hyde (U of Illinois), Jess Sullivan (Skidmore College), Sara Cordes (Boston College), and Dave Barner (UCSD).


The ManyNumbers Advisory Panel includes: Pierina Cheung (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Veronique Izard (Université de Paris), Mike Frank (Stanford); Krista Byers-Heinlein (Concordia); Daniel Berch (UVA), Pamela Davis-Keane (Michigan), Nancy Jordan (U of Delaware), Michele Mazzocco (U of Minnesota), Nicole McNeil (Notre Dame), and Amanda VanDerHeyden (RTI).

Elizabeth Gunderson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Temple University
1701 N. 13th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Phone: 215-204-1258
Email: liz.gunderson at temple.edu<mailto:liz.gunderson at temple.edu>
Website: http://sites.temple.edu/cognitionlearning/
Pronouns: she, her, hers