U.S. and Korean children's comprehension of fraction names: a reexamination of cross-national differences.

Full Abstract

Two experiments tested the claim that the transparency of Korean fraction names promotes fraction concepts (Miura, Okamoto, Vlahovic-Stetic, Kim, & Han, 1999). In Experiment 1, U.S. and Korean first and second graders made similar errors on a fraction-identification task, by treating fractions as whole numbers. Contrary to previous findings, Korean children performed at chance when a whole-number representation was included. Nonetheless, Korean children outperformed their U.S. peers overall. In Experiment 2, U.S. children's performance improved when fraction names were used that explicitly referred to part-whole relations like Korean fraction names. U.S. children's scores actually exceeded those of Korean children. Thus, although the differences in fraction names may influence children's performance, this may not account for the reported cross-national differences.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Paik, Jae H (JH); Mix, Kelly S (KS);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology and Program in Cognitive Science, Indiana University, USA.

Grants: HD07475-07 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS) ; HD37819-03 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Child development (Child Dev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2003 Jan-Feb; vol 74 (issue 1) : pp 144-54

Dates: Created 2003/03/10; Completed 2003/05/28; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12625441, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.