Does half a pizza equal half a box of chocolates? Proportional matching in an analogy task

被引:62
作者
Singer-Freeman, KE
Goswami, U
机构
[1] UCL, Inst Child Hlth, Behav & Brain Sci Unit, London WC1N 1EH, England
[2] SUNY Coll Purchase, Dept Psychol, Purchase, NY 10577 USA
关键词
analogy; fractions; proportional reasoning; mathematical development;
D O I
10.1016/S0885-2014(01)00066-1
中图分类号
B844 [发展心理学(人类心理学)];
学科分类号
040202 ;
摘要
There is now a considerable literature demonstrating analogical reasoning in children as young as 3 and 4 years of age. Here, we used analogy as a sensitive measure of proportional understanding in young children. In two experiments, we examined whether children's performance in a proportional analogy task would be affected when concrete models evoking different kinds of conceptual referents were used as the basis for the analogies. We chose two different conceptual referents (pizza and chocolates) of the kind typically used in fractions instruction. In both experiments, children were shown a base substance by the experimenter (e.g,, a whole pizza) from which a proportion was then removed (e.g., a half pizza). Children were asked to complete the analogy by removing an equivalent proportion of their own target set (e.g., a whole box of chocolates changed to half a box of chocolates). This proportional matching paradigm resulted in analogy problems of the form: 8/8 pizza: 4/8 pizza : 4/4 box of chocolates: 2/4 box of chocolates, Results indicated that 3- to 4-year-old children do have an emergent understanding of proportional equivalence, even when the materials to be matched are not isomorphic. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:811 / 829
页数:19
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