Give-a-number task evaluation methods influence the observed number knowledge

The Give-a-number (GaN) task is used to determine the symbolic number knowledge of children when they initially acquire the meaning of the number words. The task has several variations, and these versions are usually considered equivalent. However, recent works have raised the assumption that different versions may classify children differently, which was partially confirmed. Here, the role of the various evaluation methods of the task was investigated. It was found that the evaluation method considerably influences the observed number knowledge, and the effects of the various evaluation method components are added up. These results demonstrate that the specific evaluation method influences the validity and reliability of the measurement and affects the comparability of studies using different methods of the GaN task.