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Munez, David
Non-symbolic ratio reasoning in kindergarteners: Underlying unidimensional heuristics and relations with math abilities
2022, Munez, David, Bull, Rebecca, Cheung, Pierina, Orrantia, Josetxu
Although it is thought that young children focus on the magnitude of the target dimension across ratio sets during binary comparison of ratios, it is unknown whether this is the default approach to ratio reasoning, or if such approach varies across representation formats (discrete entities and continuous amounts) that naturally afford different opportunities to process the dimensions in each ratio set. In the current study, 132 kindergarteners (Mage = 68 months, SD = 3.5, range = 62–75 months) performed binary comparisons of ratios with discrete and continuous representations. Results from a linear mixed model revealed that children followed an additive strategy to ratio reasoning—i.e., they focused on the magnitude of the target dimension across ratio sets as well as on the absolute magnitude of the ratio set. This approach did not vary substantially across representation formats. Results also showed an association between ratio reasoning and children’s math problem-solving abilities; children with better math abilities performed better on ratio reasoning tasks and processed additional dimensions across ratio sets. Findings are discussed in terms of the processes that underlie ratio reasoning and add to the extant debate on whether true ratio reasoning is observed in young children.
Mapping skills between symbols and quantities in preschoolers: The role of finger patterns
2024, Orrantia, Josetxu, Munez, David, Sanchez, Rosario, Matilla, Laura
Mapping skills between different codes to represent numerical information, such as number symbols (i.e., verbal number words and written digits) and non-symbolic quantities, are important in the development of the concept of number. The aim of the current study is to investigate children's mapping skills by incorporating another numerical code that emerges at early stages in development, finger patterns. Specifically, the study investigates (i) the order in which mapping skills develop and the association with young children's understanding of cardinality; and (ii) whether finger patterns are processed similarly to symbolic codes or rather as non-symbolic quantities. Preschool children (3-year-olds, N = 113, Mage = 40.8 months, SDage = 3.6 months; 4-year-olds, N = 103, Mage = 52.9 months, SDage = 3.4 months) both cardinality knowers and subset-knowers, were presented with twelve tasks that assessed the mappings between number words, Arabic digits, finger patterns, and quantities. The results showed that children's ability to map symbolic numbers precedes the understanding that such symbols reflect quantities, and that children recognize finger patterns above their cardinality knowledge, suggesting that finger patterns are symbolic in essence.
Finger configurations and kindergarteners’ mathematical abilities
2024, Munez, David, Orrantia, Josetxu, Sanchez, Maria Rosario, Verschaffel, Lieven, Matilla, Laura
Previous research has demonstrated a link between children’s ability to name canonical finger configurations and their mathematical abilities. This study aimed to investigate the nature of this association, specifically exploring whether the relationship is skill and handshape specific and identifying the underlying mechanisms involved. Five-year-old children in Spain (N = 143) were assessed on their ability to name canonical finger configurations and analogous representations (buildings on a hill), alongside a range of mathematical skills (counting, knowledge of the verbal count sequence, single-digit arithmetic, and subitizing). Findings indicated that five-year-olds only recognize single-hand canonical finger configurations as summary symbols, processing them holistically. However, no direct association was found between the ability to recognize these configurations and the assessed mathematical skills. Notably, only the ability to name finger configurations corresponding to larger numbers (requiring enumeration) was associated with children’s arithmetic skills, suggesting that these configurations elicit combinatorial processes that are handshape specific. The implications of these findings for cognitive development and mathematical assessment are discussed, highlighting the potential for finger configurations as a tool for fostering mathematical understanding and the need for further exploration of their cognitive underpinnings.