ERIC Number: ED617470
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Dec
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Are Books Like Number Lines? Children Spontaneously Encode Spatial-Numeric Relationships in a Novel Spatial Estimation Task
Thompson, Clarissa A.; Morris, Bradley J.; Sidney, Pooja G.
Grantee Submission, Frontiers in Psychology v8 Article 2242 Dec 2017
Do children spontaneously represent spatial-numeric features of a task, even when it does not include printed numbers (Mix et al., 2016)? Sixty first grade students completed a novel spatial estimation task by seeking and finding pages in a 100-page book without printed page numbers. Children were shown pages 1 through 6 and 100, and then were asked, "Can you find page X?" Children's precision of estimates on the page finder task and a 0-100 number line estimation task was calculated with the Percent Absolute Error (PAE) formula (Siegler and Booth, 2004), in which lower PAE indicated more precise estimates. Children's numerical knowledge was further assessed with: (1) numeral identification (e.g., What number is this: 57?); (2) magnitude comparison (e.g., Which is larger: 54 or 57?); and (3) counting on (e.g., Start counting from 84 and count up 5 more). Children's accuracy on these tasks was correlated with their number line PAE. Children's number line estimation PAE predicted their page finder PAE, even after controlling for age and accuracy on the other numerical tasks. Children's estimates on the page finder and number line tasks appear to tap a general magnitude representation. However, the page finder task did not correlate with numeral identification and counting-on performance, likely because these tasks do not measure children's magnitude knowledge. Our results suggest that the novel page finder task is a useful measure of children's magnitude knowledge, and that books have similar spatial-numeric affordances as number lines and numeric board games.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 6; Intermediate Grades; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305A160295
Author Affiliations: N/A