Training nonsymbolic proportional reasoning in children and its effects on their symbolic math abilities

Abstract

Our understanding of proportions can be both symbolic, as when doing calculations in school mathematics, or intuitive, as when folding a bed sheet in half. While an understanding of symbolic proportions is crucial for school mathematics, the cognitive foundations of this ability remain unclear. Here we implemented a computerized training game to test a causal link from intuitive (nonsymbolic) to symbolic proportional reasoning and other math abilities in 4th grade children. An experimental group was trained in nonsymbolic proportional reasoning (PR) with continuous extents, and an active control group was trained on a remarkably similar nonsymbolic magnitude comparison. We found that the experimental group improved at nonsymbolic PR across training sessions, showed near transfer to a paper-and-pencil nonsymbolic PR test, transfer to symbolic proportions, and far transfer to geometry. The active control group showed only a predicted far transfer to geometry. In a second experiment, these results were replicated with an independent cohort of children. Overall this study extends previous correlational evidence, suggesting a functional link between nonsymbolic PR on one hand and symbolic PR and geometry on the other.