Perceptions of proportionality in young children: matching spatial ratios

Three experiments examined the ability of young children (4- and 5-year-olds) and adults to identify correspondences in spatial ratios. In all three experiments, children as young as 4 and 5 years of age made accurate spatial proportionality judgments. Moreover, their judgments were no less accurate when both response alternatives differed in spatial configuration from the sample than when all the configurations were alike, indicating that those judgments were based on relational information and not on the exact form of the stimuli. The findings, which suggest that the concept of ratio may have important foundations in the ways young children perceive relations within and between objects, have implications for theories of mathematical development and for methods of mathematics instruction.