Psychological Development and Education ›› 2009, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (4): 21-29.

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Representational Patterns of Numerical Estimation and its Development in Children

ZHOU Guang-dong1, MO Lei1, WEN Hong-bo2   

  1. 1. Center for studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631;
    2. Division of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
  • Online:2009-10-15 Published:2009-10-15

Abstract: Two experiments examined the development of children's numerical estimation and representations that gave rise to their estimates.In experiment 1,92 children from kindergarten,grade one and grade two were asked to estimate the locations of numbers on number lines with 0 at one end and 100 at the other and no markings in between.The result of experiment 1 indicated that most kindergarteners produced estimates consistent with a logarithmic function;most first and second graders produced estimates consistent with a linear function.In experiment 2,86 children from grade one, grade three and grade five were asked to estimate the locations of numbers on number lines with 0 at one end and 1000 at the other and no markings in between.There are 26 numbers selected in each experiment.The result of experiment-indicated that about half of first graders produced estimates that were best fit by linear function and half by logarithmic function,the large majority of third and fifth graders produced estimates consistent with a linear function.Both the results were against the view that people rely on any single representation of numbers,but for the Siegler's multiple-representations perspective.Compared with the children in the United States,the Chinese children showed the same development trend as the children in the United States,that is,with increasing age and numerical experience,they rely on appropriate representations increasingly often,but they showed better accuracy in numerical estimation task than their age peers in the United States.

Key words: children, numerical estimation, numerical representation, linear representation, logarithmic representation

CLC Number: 

  • B844.1
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