TY - GEN
T1 - ADULTS’ STRATEGY USE IN COMPLEX FRACTION COMPARISON
AU - Obersteiner, Andreas
AU - Marupudi, Vijay
AU - Alibali, Martha W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME). All rights reserved.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Several studies have found that when people compare fractions, they show a “natural number bias”, that is, better performance on problems in which the larger fraction has the larger components (e.g., 7/8 vs. 2/3) than on problems in which the larger fraction has the smaller components (e.g., 2/3 vs. 4/9). However, more recent studies found the opposite pattern (“reverse bias”). To better understand what causes these patterns, we investigated adults’ strategies in complex comparison problems with varying affordances. Adults reported strategies on a trial-by-trial basis. Overall, we found a reverse bias pattern. Strategy use varied by problem type, suggesting that participants used strategies adaptively. The study highlights variability in strategy use depending on problem type, which may account for diverse bias patterns in previous studies.
AB - Several studies have found that when people compare fractions, they show a “natural number bias”, that is, better performance on problems in which the larger fraction has the larger components (e.g., 7/8 vs. 2/3) than on problems in which the larger fraction has the smaller components (e.g., 2/3 vs. 4/9). However, more recent studies found the opposite pattern (“reverse bias”). To better understand what causes these patterns, we investigated adults’ strategies in complex comparison problems with varying affordances. Adults reported strategies on a trial-by-trial basis. Overall, we found a reverse bias pattern. Strategy use varied by problem type, suggesting that participants used strategies adaptively. The study highlights variability in strategy use depending on problem type, which may account for diverse bias patterns in previous studies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85171997756&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85171997756
SN - 9780639821542
T3 - Proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education
SP - 153
EP - 160
BT - Proceedings of the 43rd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2019
A2 - Graven, Mellony
A2 - Venkat, Hamsa
A2 - Essien, Anthony A
A2 - Vale, Pamela
PB - Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME)
T2 - 43rd Annual Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, PME 2019
Y2 - 7 July 2019 through 12 July 2019
ER -