Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2026

Multimedia Battery for Assessment of Cognitive and Basic Skills in Mathematics (BM-PROMA)
Published on: August 28, 2021
Fractions: the new frontier for theories of numerical development
Robert S Siegler1, Lisa K Fazio, Drew H Bailey
1Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. rs7k@andrew.cmu.edu
Abstract:
Recent research on fractions has broadened and deepened theories of numerical development. Learning about fractions requires children to recognize that many properties of whole numbers are not true of numbers in general and also to recognize that the one property that unites all real numbers is that they possess magnitudes that can be ordered on number lines. The difficulty of attaining this understanding makes the acquisition of knowledge about fractions an important issue educationally, as well as theoretically. This article examines the neural underpinnings of fraction understanding, developmental and individual differences in that understanding, and interventions that improve the understanding. Accurate representation of fraction magnitudes emerges as crucial both to conceptual understanding of fractions and to fraction arithmetic.
Related Concept Videos
Partial Fractions
Numerical Calculations
The solution to a problem is obtained using different methods. While manually solving algebraic symbols is one of the most common methods, the graphical method is often preferred. Computers...
Real Number Operations
How Data are Classified: Numerical Data
Quantitative data may be either discrete or continuous. All quantitative data that take on only specific numerical...
Rational Expressions
Mechanistic Models: Compartment Models in Algorithms for Numerical Problem Solving
In individual population analyses, different algorithms are employed, such as Cauchy's method, which uses a...