ERIC Number: EJ1141634
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-May
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0364-0213
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Dealing with Big Numbers: Representation and Understanding of Magnitudes outside of Human Experience
Resnick, Ilyse; Newcombe, Nora S.; Shipley, Thomas F.
Cognitive Science, v41 n4 p1020-1041 May 2017
Being able to estimate quantity is important in everyday life and for success in the STEM disciplines. However, people have difficulty reasoning about magnitudes outside of human perception (e.g., nanoseconds, geologic time). This study examines patterns of estimation errors across temporal and spatial magnitudes at large scales. We evaluated the effectiveness of hierarchical alignment in improving estimations, and transfer across dimensions. The activity was successful in increasing accuracy for temporal and spatial magnitudes, and learning transferred to the estimation of numeric magnitudes associated with events and objects. However, there were also a number of informative differences in performance on temporal, spatial, and numeric magnitude measures, suggesting that participants possess different categorical information for these scales. Educational implications are discussed.
Descriptors: STEM Education, Error Patterns, Accuracy, Abstract Reasoning, Transfer of Training, Cognitive Processes, Computation, Spatial Ability, Teaching Methods, Instructional Effectiveness
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF); Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: SBE0541957; SBE1041707; R305B130012
Author Affiliations: N/A