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Children's Strategy Choices on Complex Subtraction Problems: Individual Differences and Developmental Changes
We examined how children's strategy choices in solving complex subtraction problems are related to grade and to variations in problem complexity. In two studies, third- and fifth-grade children (N≈160 each study) solved multi-digit subtraction problems (e.g., 34–18) and described their solution...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6057409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30065686 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01209 |
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author | Caviola, Sara Mammarella, Irene C. Pastore, Massimiliano LeFevre, Jo-Anne |
author_facet | Caviola, Sara Mammarella, Irene C. Pastore, Massimiliano LeFevre, Jo-Anne |
author_sort | Caviola, Sara |
collection | PubMed |
description | We examined how children's strategy choices in solving complex subtraction problems are related to grade and to variations in problem complexity. In two studies, third- and fifth-grade children (N≈160 each study) solved multi-digit subtraction problems (e.g., 34–18) and described their solution strategies. In the first experiment, strategy selection was investigated by means of a free-choice paradigm, whereas in the second study a discrete-choice approach was implemented. In both experiments, analyses of strategy repertoire indicated that third-grade children were more likely to report less-efficient strategies (i.e., counting) and relied more on the right-to-left solution algorithm compared to fifth-grade children who more often used efficient memory-based retrieval and conceptually-based left-to-right (i.e., decomposition) strategies. Nevertheless, all strategies were reported or selected by both older and younger children and strategy use varied with problem complexity and presentation format for both age groups. These results supported the overlapping waves model of strategy development and provide detailed information about patterns of strategy choice on complex subtraction problems. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6057409 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60574092018-07-31 Children's Strategy Choices on Complex Subtraction Problems: Individual Differences and Developmental Changes Caviola, Sara Mammarella, Irene C. Pastore, Massimiliano LeFevre, Jo-Anne Front Psychol Psychology We examined how children's strategy choices in solving complex subtraction problems are related to grade and to variations in problem complexity. In two studies, third- and fifth-grade children (N≈160 each study) solved multi-digit subtraction problems (e.g., 34–18) and described their solution strategies. In the first experiment, strategy selection was investigated by means of a free-choice paradigm, whereas in the second study a discrete-choice approach was implemented. In both experiments, analyses of strategy repertoire indicated that third-grade children were more likely to report less-efficient strategies (i.e., counting) and relied more on the right-to-left solution algorithm compared to fifth-grade children who more often used efficient memory-based retrieval and conceptually-based left-to-right (i.e., decomposition) strategies. Nevertheless, all strategies were reported or selected by both older and younger children and strategy use varied with problem complexity and presentation format for both age groups. These results supported the overlapping waves model of strategy development and provide detailed information about patterns of strategy choice on complex subtraction problems. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-07-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6057409/ /pubmed/30065686 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01209 Text en Copyright © 2018 Caviola, Mammarella, Pastore and LeFevre. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Caviola, Sara Mammarella, Irene C. Pastore, Massimiliano LeFevre, Jo-Anne Children's Strategy Choices on Complex Subtraction Problems: Individual Differences and Developmental Changes |
title | Children's Strategy Choices on Complex Subtraction Problems: Individual Differences and Developmental Changes |
title_full | Children's Strategy Choices on Complex Subtraction Problems: Individual Differences and Developmental Changes |
title_fullStr | Children's Strategy Choices on Complex Subtraction Problems: Individual Differences and Developmental Changes |
title_full_unstemmed | Children's Strategy Choices on Complex Subtraction Problems: Individual Differences and Developmental Changes |
title_short | Children's Strategy Choices on Complex Subtraction Problems: Individual Differences and Developmental Changes |
title_sort | children's strategy choices on complex subtraction problems: individual differences and developmental changes |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6057409/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30065686 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01209 |
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