Spatial processing of numbers has emerged as one of the basic properties of humans' mathematical thinking. However, how and when number-space relations develop is a highly contested issue. One dominant view has been that a link between numbers and left/right spatial directions is constructed based on directional experience associated with reading…

Children experience good and bad days in their performance. Although this phenomenon is well-known to teachers, parents, and students it has not been investigated empirically. We examined whether children's working memory performance varies systematically from day to day and to which extent fluctuations at faster timescales (i.e., occasions,…

In 2 studies, subjects between 7 and 16 years of age indicated predictions for the water level in a tilted container or the position of a plumb line. Found that sex differences were evident at all ages; task performance improved with age according to a discrete stage process; and task performance was determined by field effects and rule strategy.…