Clinical Research Directory

Modifying Cognitive Strategies for Comparing Proportions

The goal of this study is to understand the cognitive processes underlying quantitative and relational reasoning, including the understanding of mathematical information (e.g., numbers, proportions, percentages, geometry) and related relational concepts (e.g., analogies, the concepts same/different), as well as how people's reasoning can be changed by external factors. The main question it aims to answer is: How does the introduction of a secondary task affect the behavior of children and adults when reasoning about proportions in different formats? Participants will be asked to make judgements about images with and without the presence of a distractor task.

Substitution Heuristic on Proportional Tasks

The goal of this clinical trial is to test whether or not adults use a substitution heuristic when reasoning about proportions. The main question it aims to answer is: Do adults use a substitution heuristic when judging non-symbolic proportions, leading them to answer an easier, yet incorrect question? Researchers will compare performance at baseline with one of two conditions in order to see if forced behavioral changes can change performance on the task. Participants will be asked to compare two images and judge which has the higher proportion of the target color. Each participant will also be assigned to one of two condition where they either receive a further incentive for correct selections or are required to use more time when making their calculations.