Children's understanding of the addition/subtraction complement principle

Bibliographic Data

ID9615352
AuthorsJoke Torbeyns (0000-0003-3244-0265, Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology KU Leuven Belgium, corresponding author), Greet Peters (0000-0003-3999-1393, Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology KU Leuven Belgium), Bert De Smedt (0000-0002-3313-3278, Parenting and Special Education Research Unit KU Leuven Belgium), Pol Ghesquière (0000-0001-9056-7550, Parenting and Special Education Research Unit KU Leuven Belgium), Lieven Verschaffel (0000-0002-5283-6470, Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology KU Leuven Belgium)
Year2016
Volume86
Issue3
Pages382-396
Publication date2016-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Educational Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0998 • E-ISSN: 2044-8279
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/bjep.12113
PMID26990792
OpenAlexW2300712926
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited31

BACKGROUND: In the last decades, children's understanding of mathematical principles has become an important research topic. Different from the commutativity and inversion principles, only few studies have focused on children's understanding of the addition/subtraction complement principle (if a - b = c, then c + b = a), mainly relying on verbal techniques. AIM: This contribution aimed at deepening our understanding of children's knowledge of the addition/subtraction complement principle, combining verbal and non-verbal techniques. SAMPLE: Participants were 67 third and fourth graders (9- to 10-year-olds). METHODS: Children solved two tasks in which verbal reports as well as accuracy and speed data were collected. These two tasks differed only in the order of the problems and the instructions. In the looking-back task, children were told that sometimes the preceding problem might help to answer the next problem. In the baseline task, no helpful preceding items were offered. The looking-back task included 10 trigger-target problem pairs on the complement relation. RESULTS: Children verbally reported looking back on about 40% of all target problems in the looking-back task; the target problems were also solved faster and more accurately than in the baseline task. These results suggest that children used their understanding of the complement principle. The verbal and non-verbal data were highly correlated. DISCUSSION: This study complements previous work on children's understanding of mathematical principles by highlighting interindividual differences in 9- to 10-year-olds' understanding of the complement principle and indicating the potential of combining verbal and non-verbal techniques to investigate (the acquisition of) this understanding

Arithmetic · Cognitive psychology · Complement (music) · Developmental psychology · Subtraction · Task (project management) · Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills · Mathematics · Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques · Psychology · Science Education and Pedagogy

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