Fixated in more familiar territory: Providing an explicit midpoint for typical and atypical number lines

Does providing an explicit midpoint affect adults' performance differently for typical and atypical number line tasks? Participants (N = 29) estimated the location of target numbers on typical (i.e., 0-10,000) and atypical (i.e., 0-7,000) number lines with either an explicitly labelled midpoint or no midpoint. For the typical number line, estimation accuracy did not differ for the explicit- and implicit-midpoint conditions. For the atypical number line, participants in the explicit-midpoint condition were more accurate than those in the implicit-midpoint condition and their pattern of error was similar to that seen for typical number lines (i.e., M-shaped). In contrast, for participants in the implicit-midpoint condition, the pattern of error on the atypical line was tent-shaped, with less accurate estimates around the midpoint and quartiles than the endpoints. Eye-tracking data showed that, for all number lines, participants used the middle of the line to guide their estimates, but participants in the explicit-midpoint condition were more likely to make their first fixation around the true midpoint than those in the implicit-midpoint condition. We conclude that adults have difficulty in estimating on atypical number lines because they incorrectly calculate the numerical value of the midpoint.