Numerical bias in bounded and unbounded number line tasks

The number line task is often used to assess children’s and adults’ underlying representations of integers. Traditional bounded number line tasks, however, have limitations that can lead to misinterpretation. Here we present a new task, an unbounded number line task, that overcomes these limitations...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychonomic bulletin & review 2011-04, Vol.18 (2), p.331-338
Main Authors: Cohen, Dale J., Blanc-Goldhammer, Daryn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Children & youth
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition. Intelligence
Cognitive Psychology
Concept Formation
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Mathematics
Mental imagery. Mental representation
Problem Solving
Psychological Tests
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Studies
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Summary:The number line task is often used to assess children’s and adults’ underlying representations of integers. Traditional bounded number line tasks, however, have limitations that can lead to misinterpretation. Here we present a new task, an unbounded number line task, that overcomes these limitations. In Experiment 1 , we show that adults use a biased proportion estimation strategy to complete the traditional bounded number line task. In Experiment 2 , we show that adults use a dead-reckoning integer estimation strategy in our unbounded number line task. Participants revealed a positively accelerating numerical bias in both tasks, but showed scalar variance only in the unbounded number line task. We conclude that the unbounded number line task is a more pure measure of integer representation than the bounded number line task, and using these results, we present a preliminary description of adults’ underlying representation of integers.
ISSN:1069-9384
1531-5320
DOI:10.3758/s13423-011-0059-z