Left digit bias in children's and adults' paper-and-pencil number line estimation.
Number line estimation tasks are frequently used to learn about numerical thinking, learning, and development. These tasks are often interpreted as though estimates are determined by overall magnitudes of target numerals, rather than specific instantiating digits. Yet estimates are strongly biased b...
| Published in: | Memory & Cognition Vol. 53; no. 7; pp. 2217 - 2237 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Oct2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=189137933&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 189137933 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0090502X MEG jtl: Memory & Cognition issn: 0090502X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Oct2025 vid: 53 iid: 7 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 189137933 10.3758/s13421-025-01707-y ppf: 2217 ppct: 20 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 2.6MB tig: atl: Left digit bias in children's and adults' paper-and-pencil number line estimation. aug: au: Barth, Hilary Rutkowski, Bethany Vaidya, Leah Kim, Erin Bourassa, Cameron Fabian, Annie Eisen, Sierra Zax, Alexandra Williams, Katherine Patalano, Andrea L. affil: https://ror.org/05h7xva58 Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, 207 High Street, 06459, Middletown, CT, USA su: Task performance Child development Analysis of variance Cognition Repeated measures design Pearson correlation (Statistics) Mathematics Research funding T-test (Statistics) Descriptive statistics Psychology of movement Data analysis software Visual perception Handedness sug: subj: Task performance Child development Analysis of variance Cognition Repeated measures design Pearson correlation (Statistics) Mathematics Research funding T-test (Statistics) Descriptive statistics Psychology of movement Data analysis software Visual perception Handedness keyword: Estimation Left digit bias Left digit effect Number line Numerical cognition Estimation Left digit bias Left digit effect Number line Numerical cognition ab: Number line estimation tasks are frequently used to learn about numerical thinking, learning, and development. These tasks are often interpreted as though estimates are determined by overall magnitudes of target numerals, rather than specific instantiating digits. Yet estimates are strongly biased by leftmost digits. For example, numbers like "698" are placed too far to the left of numbers like "701" on a 0–1,000 line. This "left digit effect" or "left digit bias" has been investigated little in children, and only on electronic tasks. Here, we ask whether left digit bias appears in paper-and-pencil estimates, and whether it differs for paper-based versus computer-based tasks. In Study 1, 5- to 8-year-old children completed a 0–100 number line task on paper. In Study 2, 7- to 11-year-olds completed a 0–1,000 paper task. In Study 3, adults completed tasks on paper in both ranges. Large left digit effects were observed for children aged 8 years or older and adults, but we did not find evidence for left digit bias in younger children. Study 4 compared paper and computer tasks for adults and children aged 9–12 years. Strong left digit bias was observed in all conditions, with a larger effect for the paper-based task in children. Large left digit effects in number line estimation emerge regardless of task format, with a developmental trajectory broadly consistent with other studies. For children in the age range that reliably exhibits left digit bias (but not adults), paper-and-pencil number line estimation tasks elicit even greater bias than computer-based tasks. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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