TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing Young Children's Number Magnitude Representation
T2 - A Comparison Between Novel and Conventional Tasks
AU - Reid, Erin E.
AU - Baroody, Arthur J.
AU - Purpura, David J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported, in part, by grants from the Institute of Education Sciences and the U.S. Department of Education (R305A080479 and R305B100017). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position, policy, or endorsement of the Institute of Education Sciences.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2015/10/20
Y1 - 2015/10/20
N2 - Previously, researchers have relied on asking young children to plot a given number on a 0-to-10 number line to assess their mental representation of numbers 1 to 9. However, such a (“conventional”) number-to-position (N-P) task may underestimate the accuracy of young children's magnitude estimates and misrepresent the nature of their number representation. The purpose of this study was to compare young children's performance on the conventional N-P task and a “modified” N-P task that is more consistent with a discrete-quantity view of number and with measures of theoretically related mathematical competencies. Participants (n = 45), ranging in age from 4;0 to 6;0, were administered both versions of the N-P task twice during 4 sessions in 1 of 2 randomly assigned and counterbalanced orders. Between and within conditions, children were significantly more accurate on the modified version than on the conventional task. The results indicate that the conventional task, in particular, may be confusing and that several simple modifications can make it more understandable for young children. However, when performance on theoretically related number tasks is taken into account, both the conventional and the modified N-P tasks appeared to underestimate competence.
AB - Previously, researchers have relied on asking young children to plot a given number on a 0-to-10 number line to assess their mental representation of numbers 1 to 9. However, such a (“conventional”) number-to-position (N-P) task may underestimate the accuracy of young children's magnitude estimates and misrepresent the nature of their number representation. The purpose of this study was to compare young children's performance on the conventional N-P task and a “modified” N-P task that is more consistent with a discrete-quantity view of number and with measures of theoretically related mathematical competencies. Participants (n = 45), ranging in age from 4;0 to 6;0, were administered both versions of the N-P task twice during 4 sessions in 1 of 2 randomly assigned and counterbalanced orders. Between and within conditions, children were significantly more accurate on the modified version than on the conventional task. The results indicate that the conventional task, in particular, may be confusing and that several simple modifications can make it more understandable for young children. However, when performance on theoretically related number tasks is taken into account, both the conventional and the modified N-P tasks appeared to underestimate competence.
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U2 - 10.1080/15248372.2014.920844
DO - 10.1080/15248372.2014.920844
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84947018713
SN - 1524-8372
VL - 16
SP - 759
EP - 779
JO - Journal of Cognition and Development
JF - Journal of Cognition and Development
IS - 5
ER -