Sara Cordes
Biographic Data
| ID | 5710644 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sara Cordes |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sara |
| FAMILY NAME | Cordes |
| SIGNATURE | CORDES S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston College |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3837-6188 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Participation in intensive orchestral music training does not cause gains in executive functioning, self-perception, or attitudes toward school in young children
Children underperform following “math” but not “spatial” task framing
Increasing evidence suggests that success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is not only dependent upon one's actual STEM-relevant abilities but also upon one's STEM-relevant attitudes-in particular, math and spatial attitudes. Here, we examine whether simply mentioning the math or spatial relevance of a task affects children's performance and the moderating role of children's math and spatial attitudes. Further, we exami…
How many seconds was that? Teaching children about time does not refine their ability to track durations
Who's the winner? Children's math learning in competitive and collaborative scenarios
Games are frequently used to promote math learning, yet the competitive and collaborative contexts introduced by games may exacerbate gender differences. In this study, 1st and 2nd grade children in the U.S. (ages 5–8; N = 274; 70% White, 15% Asian, 2% Black, 1% Native American, 14% mixed or other race; 17% Hispanic) played either a competitive, collaborative, or solo game to learn about a challenging novel math concept: proportion. Overall, both…
A counting intervention promotes fair sharing in preschoolers
Recent work has probed the developmental mechanisms that promote fair sharing. This work investigated 2.5- to 5.5-year-olds’ (N = 316; 52% female; 79% White; data collected 2016–2018) sharing behavior in relation to three cognitive correlates: number knowledge, working memory, and cognitive control. In contrast to working memory and cognitive control, number knowledge was uniquely associated with fair sharing even after controlling for the other …
Children strategically conceal selfishness
Can children exploit knowledge asymmetries to get away with selfishness? This question was addressed by testing 6- to 9-year-old children (N = 164; 81 girls) from the Northeastern United States in a modified Ultimatum Game. Children were assigned to the roles of proposers (who offered some proportion of an endowment) and responders (who could accept or reject offers). Both players in the Informed condition knew the endowment quantity in each tria…
Intuitive symbolic magnitude judgments and decision making under risk in adults
The impact of set size on cumulative area judgments
Quantifying Sources of Variability in Infancy Research Using the Infant-Directed-Speech Preference
Psychological scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability, and infancy researchers in particular face specific challenges related to replicability: For example, high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multisite study aimed at (a) as…
Preschoolers’ number knowledge relates to spontaneous focusing on number for small, but not large, sets
Much research has examined the reciprocal relations between a child's spontaneous focus on number (SFON) in the preschool years and later mathematical achievement. However, this literature relies on several different tasks to assess SFON with distinct task demands, making it unclear to what extent these tasks measure the same underlying construct. Moreover, prior studies have investigated SFON in the context of small sets exclusively, but no work…
How high can you count? Probing the limits of children’s counting
While much research has focused on understanding the process by which young children learn to count, little work has explored the effects of direct instruction on this process. In the current study, we explored the impacts of training children in an explicit counting procedure on two distinct cardinality tasks. Two- to 5-year-old children first participated in a Give-N task in which counting proficiency was assessed, and then participated in a sh…
Attending to relations
When proportional information is pit against whole number numerical information, children often attend to the whole number information at the expense of proportional information (e.g., indicating 4/9 is greater than 3/5 because 4 > 3). In the current study, we presented younger (3- to 4-year-olds) and older (5- to 6-year-olds) children a task in which the proportional information was presented either continuously (units cannot be counted) or disc…
A systematic investigation of the link between rational number processing and algebra ability
Recent research suggests that fraction understanding is predictive of algebra ability; however, the relative contributions of various aspects of rational number knowledge are unclear. Furthermore, whether this relationship is notation‐dependent or rather relies upon a general understanding of rational numbers (independent of notation) is an open question. In this study, college students completed a rational number magnitude task, procedural arith…
Is more time in general music class associated with stronger extra-musical outcomes in kindergarten
Space, Time, and Number
Numerical cognition explains age-related changes in third-party fairness
Young children share fairly and expect others to do the same. Yet little is known about the underlying cognitive mechanisms that support fairness. We investigated whether children's numerical competencies are linked with their sharing behavior. Preschoolers (aged 2.5-5.5) participated in third-party resource allocation tasks in which they split a set of resources between 2 puppets. Children's numerical competence was assessed using the Give-N tas…
Crossing the divide
Although young infants have repeatedly demonstrated successful numerosity discrimination across large sets when the number of items in the sets changes twofold (E. M. Brannon, S. Abbott, & D. J. Lutz, 2004; J. N. Wood & E. S. Spelke, 2005; F. Xu & E. S. Spelke, 2000), they consistently fail to discriminate a twofold change in number when one set is large and the other is small (<4 items; F. Feigenson, S. Carey, & M. Hauser, 2002; F. Xu, 2003). It…
Numerical cognition explains age-related changes in third-party fairness
Young children share fairly and expect others to do the same. Yet little is known about the underlying cognitive mechanisms that support fairness. We investigated whether children's numerical competencies are linked with their sharing behavior. Preschoolers (aged 2.5-5.5) participated in third-party resource allocation tasks in which they split a set of resources between 2 puppets. Children's numerical competence was assessed using the Give-N tas…
Attending to relations
When proportional information is pit against whole number numerical information, children often attend to the whole number information at the expense of proportional information (e.g., indicating 4/9 is greater than 3/5 because 4 > 3). In the current study, we presented younger (3- to 4-year-olds) and older (5- to 6-year-olds) children a task in which the proportional information was presented either continuously (units cannot be counted) or disc…
Crossing the divide
Although young infants have repeatedly demonstrated successful numerosity discrimination across large sets when the number of items in the sets changes twofold (E. M. Brannon, S. Abbott, & D. J. Lutz, 2004; J. N. Wood & E. S. Spelke, 2005; F. Xu & E. S. Spelke, 2000), they consistently fail to discriminate a twofold change in number when one set is large and the other is small (<4 items; F. Feigenson, S. Carey, & M. Hauser, 2002; F. Xu, 2003). It…
Children underperform following “math” but not “spatial” task framing
Increasing evidence suggests that success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is not only dependent upon one's actual STEM-relevant abilities but also upon one's STEM-relevant attitudes-in particular, math and spatial attitudes. Here, we examine whether simply mentioning the math or spatial relevance of a task affects children's performance and the moderating role of children's math and spatial attitudes. Further, we exami…
How high can you count? Probing the limits of children’s counting
While much research has focused on understanding the process by which young children learn to count, little work has explored the effects of direct instruction on this process. In the current study, we explored the impacts of training children in an explicit counting procedure on two distinct cardinality tasks. Two- to 5-year-old children first participated in a Give-N task in which counting proficiency was assessed, and then participated in a sh…
Crossing the divide
Although young infants have repeatedly demonstrated successful numerosity discrimination across large sets when the number of items in the sets changes twofold (E. M. Brannon, S. Abbott, & D. J. Lutz, 2004; J. N. Wood & E. S. Spelke, 2005; F. Xu & E. S. Spelke, 2000), they consistently fail to discriminate a twofold change in number when one set is large and the other is small (<4 items; F. Feigenson, S. Carey, & M. Hauser, 2002; F. Xu, 2003). It…
Space, Time, and Number
Numerical cognition explains age-related changes in third-party fairness
Young children share fairly and expect others to do the same. Yet little is known about the underlying cognitive mechanisms that support fairness. We investigated whether children's numerical competencies are linked with their sharing behavior. Preschoolers (aged 2.5-5.5) participated in third-party resource allocation tasks in which they split a set of resources between 2 puppets. Children's numerical competence was assessed using the Give-N tas…
Is more time in general music class associated with stronger extra-musical outcomes in kindergarten
How high can you count? Probing the limits of children’s counting
While much research has focused on understanding the process by which young children learn to count, little work has explored the effects of direct instruction on this process. In the current study, we explored the impacts of training children in an explicit counting procedure on two distinct cardinality tasks. Two- to 5-year-old children first participated in a Give-N task in which counting proficiency was assessed, and then participated in a sh…
Attending to relations
When proportional information is pit against whole number numerical information, children often attend to the whole number information at the expense of proportional information (e.g., indicating 4/9 is greater than 3/5 because 4 > 3). In the current study, we presented younger (3- to 4-year-olds) and older (5- to 6-year-olds) children a task in which the proportional information was presented either continuously (units cannot be counted) or disc…
A systematic investigation of the link between rational number processing and algebra ability
Recent research suggests that fraction understanding is predictive of algebra ability; however, the relative contributions of various aspects of rational number knowledge are unclear. Furthermore, whether this relationship is notation‐dependent or rather relies upon a general understanding of rational numbers (independent of notation) is an open question. In this study, college students completed a rational number magnitude task, procedural arith…
Intuitive symbolic magnitude judgments and decision making under risk in adults
The impact of set size on cumulative area judgments
Quantifying Sources of Variability in Infancy Research Using the Infant-Directed-Speech Preference
Psychological scientists have become increasingly concerned with issues related to methodology and replicability, and infancy researchers in particular face specific challenges related to replicability: For example, high-powered studies are difficult to conduct, testing conditions vary across labs, and different labs have access to different infant populations. Addressing these concerns, we report on a large-scale, multisite study aimed at (a) as…
Preschoolers’ number knowledge relates to spontaneous focusing on number for small, but not large, sets
Much research has examined the reciprocal relations between a child's spontaneous focus on number (SFON) in the preschool years and later mathematical achievement. However, this literature relies on several different tasks to assess SFON with distinct task demands, making it unclear to what extent these tasks measure the same underlying construct. Moreover, prior studies have investigated SFON in the context of small sets exclusively, but no work…
A counting intervention promotes fair sharing in preschoolers
Recent work has probed the developmental mechanisms that promote fair sharing. This work investigated 2.5- to 5.5-year-olds’ (N = 316; 52% female; 79% White; data collected 2016–2018) sharing behavior in relation to three cognitive correlates: number knowledge, working memory, and cognitive control. In contrast to working memory and cognitive control, number knowledge was uniquely associated with fair sharing even after controlling for the other …
Children strategically conceal selfishness
Can children exploit knowledge asymmetries to get away with selfishness? This question was addressed by testing 6- to 9-year-old children (N = 164; 81 girls) from the Northeastern United States in a modified Ultimatum Game. Children were assigned to the roles of proposers (who offered some proportion of an endowment) and responders (who could accept or reject offers). Both players in the Informed condition knew the endowment quantity in each tria…
How many seconds was that? Teaching children about time does not refine their ability to track durations
Who's the winner? Children's math learning in competitive and collaborative scenarios
Games are frequently used to promote math learning, yet the competitive and collaborative contexts introduced by games may exacerbate gender differences. In this study, 1st and 2nd grade children in the U.S. (ages 5–8; N = 274; 70% White, 15% Asian, 2% Black, 1% Native American, 14% mixed or other race; 17% Hispanic) played either a competitive, collaborative, or solo game to learn about a challenging novel math concept: proportion. Overall, both…
Children underperform following “math” but not “spatial” task framing
Increasing evidence suggests that success in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is not only dependent upon one's actual STEM-relevant abilities but also upon one's STEM-relevant attitudes-in particular, math and spatial attitudes. Here, we examine whether simply mentioning the math or spatial relevance of a task affects children's performance and the moderating role of children's math and spatial attitudes. Further, we exami…
Participation in intensive orchestral music training does not cause gains in executive functioning, self-perception, or attitudes toward school in young children
Psychology (15 works) · Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills (12 works) · Developmental psychology (11 works) · Cognitive psychology (9 works) · Cognition (7 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques (6 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (5 works) · Mathematics (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works)