The Natural Number Bias Hampers Secondary School Students in Different Ways: A Conceptual Replication of Van Hoof et al. (2013)

Abstract

Abstract The current study investigated how the natural number bias might hamper secondary students by replicating Van Hoof et al. (2013) previous research with a Mexican sample (n = 105). We asked grades 1 and 3 students to solve an online fraction comparison task with items consistent or inconsistent with the natural number bias. Students’ accuracies decreased in incongruent items compared to congruent items. Also, they needed more time to solve incongruent items correctly, suggesting the activation of analytical processes. However, there were no differences between the reaction times of incorrectly answered incongruent items and those of correctly answered congruent items, which indicated that students did not detect conflicts while solving incongruent items. These results partially replicate Van Hoof et al. (2013) and further support the Dual-process account of the natural number bias. We discuss how replication studies might help to deepen the understanding of the natural number bias. The Impact Sheet to this article can be accessed at 10.6084/m9.figshare.24220003.