Adolescents and Adults Need Inhibitory Control to Compare Fractions
This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [What does this mean?].
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Rossi, Sandrine
Vidal, Julie
Letang, Marie
Houdé, Olivier
Borst, Grégoire
Abstract / Description
For children, adolescents and educated adults, comparing fractions with common numerators (e.g., 4/5 vs. 4/9) is more challenging than comparing fractions with common denominators (e.g., 3/4 vs. 6/4) or fractions with no common components (e.g., 5/7 vs. 6/2). Errors are related to the tendency to rely on the “greater the whole number, the greater the fraction” strategy, according to which 4/9 seems larger than 4/5 because 9 is larger than 5. We aimed to determine whether the ability of adolescents and educated adults to compare fractions with common numerators was rooted in part in their ability to inhibit the use of this misleading strategy by adapting the negative priming paradigm. We found that participants were slower to compare the magnitude of two fractions with common denominators after they compared the magnitude of two fractions with common numerators than after they decided which of two fractions possessed a denominator larger than the numerator. The negative priming effects reported suggest that inhibitory control is needed at all ages to avoid errors when comparing fractions with common numerators.
Preprint of: Rossi, S., Vidal, J., Letang, M., Houdé, O., & Borst, G. (2019). Adolescents and adults need inhibitory control to compare fractions. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 5(3), 314–336. https://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v5i3.197
Keyword(s)
conceptual development fraction comparisons whole number bias inhibitory controlPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2019-03
Publisher
PsychArchives
Is version of
Citation
Rossi, S., Vidal, J., Letang, M., Houdé, O., & Borst, G. (2019). Adolescents and Adults Need Inhibitory Control to Compare Fractions. PsychArchives. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.2381
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Adolescents and Adults Need Inhibitory Control to Compare Fractions.pdfAdobe PDF - 363.33KBMD5: 5b42b462c2a36c39fd26b7d95168fcf2Description: Pre-Print
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Rossi, Sandrine
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Vidal, Julie
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Letang, Marie
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Houdé, Olivier
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Borst, Grégoire
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2019-03-19T15:39:09Z
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Made available on2019-03-19T15:39:09Z
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Date of first publication2019-03
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Abstract / DescriptionFor children, adolescents and educated adults, comparing fractions with common numerators (e.g., 4/5 vs. 4/9) is more challenging than comparing fractions with common denominators (e.g., 3/4 vs. 6/4) or fractions with no common components (e.g., 5/7 vs. 6/2). Errors are related to the tendency to rely on the “greater the whole number, the greater the fraction” strategy, according to which 4/9 seems larger than 4/5 because 9 is larger than 5. We aimed to determine whether the ability of adolescents and educated adults to compare fractions with common numerators was rooted in part in their ability to inhibit the use of this misleading strategy by adapting the negative priming paradigm. We found that participants were slower to compare the magnitude of two fractions with common denominators after they compared the magnitude of two fractions with common numerators than after they decided which of two fractions possessed a denominator larger than the numerator. The negative priming effects reported suggest that inhibitory control is needed at all ages to avoid errors when comparing fractions with common numerators.en_US
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Abstract / DescriptionPreprint of: Rossi, S., Vidal, J., Letang, M., Houdé, O., & Borst, G. (2019). Adolescents and adults need inhibitory control to compare fractions. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 5(3), 314–336. https://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v5i3.197en
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Publication statusother
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Review statusnotReviewed
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CitationRossi, S., Vidal, J., Letang, M., Houdé, O., & Borst, G. (2019). Adolescents and Adults Need Inhibitory Control to Compare Fractions. PsychArchives. https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.2381en_US
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/2013
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.2381
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Language of contentengen_US
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PublisherPsychArchivesen_US
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Is version ofhttp://dx.doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/H3A7F
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v5i3.197
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.v5i3.197
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Keyword(s)conceptual developmenten_US
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Keyword(s)fraction comparisonsen_US
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Keyword(s)whole number biasen_US
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Keyword(s)inhibitory controlen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleAdolescents and Adults Need Inhibitory Control to Compare Fractionsen_US
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DRO typepreprinten_US