Attending to relations
Proportional reasoning in 3- to 6-year-old children
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9788677 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michelle Hurst (corresponding author), Michelle A Hurst (0000-0001-6076-334X, Boston College, corresponding author), Sara Cordes (0000-0003-3837-6188, Boston College) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 428-439 |
| Publication date | 2018-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Developmental Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0012-1649 • E-ISSN: 1939-0599 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/dev0000440 |
| PMID | 29083218 |
| OpenAlex | W2765314162 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
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 discretely (countable units; numerical information available). In the discrete conditions, older children showed numerical interference-responding based on the number of pieces instead of the proportion of pieces. However, older children easily overcame this poor strategy selection on discrete trials if they first had some experience with continuous, proportional strategies, suggesting this prevalent reliance on numerical information may be malleable. Younger children, on the other hand, showed difficulty with the proportion task, but showed evidence of proportional reasoning in a simplified estimation-style task, suggesting that younger children may still be developing their proportional and numerical skills in task-dependent ways. Lastly, across both age groups, performance on the proportional reasoning task in continuous contexts, but not discrete contexts, was related to more general analogical reasoning skills. Findings suggest that children's proportional reasoning abilities are actively developing between the ages of 3 and 6 and may depend on domain general reasoning skills. We discuss the implications for this work for both cognitive development and education. (PsycINFO Database Record
Cognition · Cognitive development · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive skill · Countable set · Developmental psychology · MEDLINE · Proportional reasoning · PsycINFO · Task (project management · Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills · Mathematics · Mathematics Education and Pedagogy · Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques · Psychology
Four- to six-year-olds’ ratio reasoning-from 2D to 3D quantities
The relation between proportional vocabulary and proportional reasoning abilities in young children
Middle-schoolers' misconceptions in discretized nonsymbolic proportional reasoning explain fraction biases better than their continuous reasoning
Continuous and discrete proportion elicit different cognitive strategies
Children's understanding of most is dependent on context
Who's the winner? Children's math learning in competitive and collaborative scenarios
The Development of Nonsymbolic Probability Judgments in Children
Easy or difficult? Children's understanding of how supply and demand affect goal completion
Using numbers strategically
Development of children's informal understanding of division through sharing
Giving a larger amount or a larger proportion
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,83 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |