To explain children's difficulties learning fraction arithmetic, Braithwaite et al. (2017) proposed FARRA, a theory of fraction arithmetic implemented as a computational model. The present study tested predictions of the theory in a new domain, decimal arithmetic, and investigated children's use of conceptual knowledge in that domain. Sixth and…

Fraction arithmetic is among the most important and difficult topics children encounter in elementary and middle school mathematics. Braithwaite, Pyke, and Siegler (2017) hypothesized that difficulties learning fraction arithmetic often reflect reliance on associative knowledge--rather than understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures--to…

The purpose of the present study was to examine factors that influence strategic flexibility in computational estimation for Chinese- and Canadian-educated adults. Strategic flexibility was operationalized as the percentage of trials on which participants chose the problem-based procedure that best balanced proximity to the correct answer with…

Participants' reaction times (RTs) in numerical judgment tasks in which one must determine which of 2 numbers is greater generally follow a monotonically decreasing function of the numerical distance between the two presented numbers. Here, I present 3 experiments in which the relative influences of numerical distance and physical similarity are…