Straightening up: Number line estimates shift from log to linear with additional information.
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: It has been suggested that a developmental log-to-linear shift in children's performance on number line estimation tasks is diagnostic of their underlying representations of numerical magnitude (Siegler & Opfer, 2003).However, in the study presented herein, we were able to induce a similar log-tolinear shift on number line estimation tasks among adults by manipulating their familiarity with the numbers we used as stimuli.We offer this evidence as an existence proof that differences in performance on number line estimation tasks may not necessarily be indicative of fundamental differences in the formats of people's underlying numerical magnitude representations.Rather, they may be diagnostic of differences in people's understandings of what magnitudes are represented by symbolic numbers.
Authors: Matthews, Percival, Chesney, Dana
Institution: University of Notre Dame
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: University of Notre Dame
OpenAlex ID: W2576877856