Why Children Make “Better” Estimates of Fractional Magnitude than Adults

Development of estimation has been ascribed to two sources: (1) a change from logarithmic to linear representations of number and (2) development of general estimation skills. To test the representational change hypothesis, we gave children and adults an estimation task in which an automatic, linear representation is less adaptive than the logarithmic representation: estimating the value of salaries given in fractional notation. The representational change hypothesis generated the surprising (and accurate) prediction that when estimating the magnitude of salaries given in fractional notation, young children would outperform adults, whereas when estimating the magnitude of the same salaries given in decimal notation, adults would outperform children. Further support for the representational change hypothesis came from a training study, in which children were given feedback on their estimates of numerical magnitude; as expected, children who improved their estimates of the value of whole numbers subsequently harmed their estimates of fractional value.