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Article
Intuitive proportion judgment in number-line estimation: Converging evidence from multiple tasks
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (2017)
  • Emily Slusser, San Jose State University
  • Hilary Barth, Wesleyan University
Abstract
How children’s understanding of numerical magnitudes changes over the course of development remains a key question in the study of numerical cognition. In an ongoing debate about the source of developmental change, some argue that children maintain and access different mental representations of number, with evidence coming largely from common number-line estimation tasks. In contrast, others argue that a theoretical framework based on psychophysical models of proportion estimation accounts for typical performance on these tasks. The current study explored children’s (n = 71) and adults’ (n = 27) performance on two number-line tasks: the “number to position” (or NP) task and the inverse “position to number” (or PN) task. Estimates on both tasks are consistent with the predictions of the proportion estimation account and do not support the hypothesis that a fundamental shift in mental representations underlies developmental change in numerical estimation and, in turn, mathematical ability. Converging evidence across the tasks also calls into question the utility of bounded number-line tasks as an evaluation of mental representations of number.
Keywords
  • Numerical cognition,
  • Estimation,
  • Proportion judgment,
  • Number line,
  • Position to Number (PN) task,
  • Number to Position (NP) task
Publication Date
October, 2017
DOI
10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.010
Publisher Statement
This is the Submitted Manuscript of an article that was published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, volume 162, 2017. The Version of Record is available online at this link.

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Citation Information
Emily Slusser and Hilary Barth. "Intuitive proportion judgment in number-line estimation: Converging evidence from multiple tasks" Journal of Experimental Child Psychology Vol. 162 (2017) p. 181 - 198 ISSN: 0022-0965
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/emily_slusser/11/