In: Psychological Research, 2019, vol. 83, p. 855-893
The current study investigated whether children’s mental representations of numbers are organized spatially at the onset of formal schooling using a manual-pointing task. First- graders (N = 77) saw four numbers (1, 3, 7, 9) presented randomly in four spatial positions (extreme left, left, right, extreme right) on a touch screen. In a Go/No-Go task, children were asked to press the appearing...
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In: Cognitive Development, 2018, vol. 45, p. 57-67
The present study investigated the role of spatial scaling and proportional-reasoning skills in children’s number-line estimations. Proportional strategies in number-line estimations might suggest that correlations between number-line knowledge and scaling are driven by proportional thinking. However, analyses of data on spatial scaling, proportional reasoning, counting skills, and...
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In: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2015, vol. 132, p. 213–220
Previous research has indicated a close link between spatial and mathematical thinking. However, what shared processes account for this link? In this study, we focused on the spatial skill of map reading and the mathematical skill of proportional reasoning and investigated whether scaling, or the ability to relate information in different-sized representations, is a shared process. Scaling was...
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In: Child Development, 2013, vol. 84, no. 5, p. 1554-1565
In this study, 6-month-olds’ ability to mentally rotate objects was investigated using the violation-of-expectation paradigm. Forty infants watched an asymmetric object being moved straight down behind an occluder. When the occluder was lowered, it revealed the original object (possible) or its mirror image (impossible) in one of five orientations. Whereas half of the infants were allowed...
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In: Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2014, vol. 18, no. 10, p. 536-542
Mental representation and transformation of spatial information is often examined with mental rotation tasks, which require deciding whether a rotated image is the same or the mirror version of an upright image. Recent research with infants shows early discrimination of objects from mirror image versions. However, even at age 4, many children perform near chance level on more standard...
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In: Journal of Cognition and Development, 2016, vol. 17, no. 1, p. 67-84
Proportional reasoning involves thinking about parts and wholes, i.e., about fractional quantities. Yet, research on proportional reasoning and fraction learning has proceeded separately. This study assessed proportional reasoning and formal fraction knowledge in 8- to 10-year-olds. Participants (N = 52) saw combinations of cherry juice and water, in displays that highlighted either...
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In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2016, vol. 42, no. 9, p. 1473-1479
Spatial scaling, or an understanding of how distances in different-sized spaces relate to each other, is fundamental for many spatial tasks and relevant for success in numerous professions. Previous research has suggested that adults use mental transformation strategies to mentally scale spatial input, as indicated by linear increases in response times and accuracies with larger scaling...
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