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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques
Published on: June 30, 2020
Representational change and magnitude estimation: why young children can make more accurate salary comparisons than
John E Opfer1, Jeffrey M Devries
1Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. opfer.7@osu.edu
Abstract:
Development of estimation has been ascribed to two sources: (1) a change from logarithmic to linear representations of number and (2) development of general mathematical skills. To test the representational change hypothesis, we gave children and adults a task in which an automatic, linear representation is less adaptive than the logarithmic representation: estimating the value of salaries given in fractional notation. The representational change hypothesis generated the surprising (and accurate) prediction that when estimating the magnitude of salaries given in fractional notation, young children would outperform adults, whereas when estimating the magnitude of the same salaries given in decimal notation, adults would outperform children.
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The estimate for the mean of a sample is denoted by ͞x, whereas the mean of the population is designated as μ. Further, parameters such as the mean,...
